


hunger hurts, starving works

by petty_labelle



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxious Adora (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra) in a Suit, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Disaster Adora (She-Ra), Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Romantic Fluff, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, Slow Burn, apologies to fiona apple, friends to idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 55,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28858188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petty_labelle/pseuds/petty_labelle
Summary: “Look, can I ask you something? It’s your birthday so I don’t know if you’ve set any boundaries on hook-ups but…”“Hooking up?” And then Adora just can’t stop, “Oh, no, I’m not hooking up. I mean. I have, but not now. Not, uh, a thing I do really. Um...yeah.”Catra is kind enough to try to hold back her smile.“Well, you just made this super awkward,” she breathes out. “I was gonna ask if your friend was single. You're hot and all. But every word out of your mouth has been a total bummer, not gonna lie.”Adora has died and gone to lesbian hell. She always knew it would come to this.__Adora Gray's life is on track, just the way she likes it – ever steady, no surprises. And then Catra Morgan crashes her birthday party and turns everything upside down by dating her best friend Glimmer and making Adora fall for her.That's fine! Adora is not panicked at all, thank you very much. She has some detailed, multi-step plans to ignore her growing feelings and navigate this all. But Catra, and her past, have a pesky tendency of showing up and throwing everything for a loop.Hunger hurtsBut starving worksWhen it costs too much to love
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 742
Kudos: 501





	1. A Slow Burn. An Acquired Taste.

**Author's Note:**

> aka some early 30s dorks fall in love and refuse to talk about it ever. Featuring: Catra in a lot of suits, some Glitra content, a bunch of cute non-dates, and a wild cub. 
> 
> Rating will definitely change but not for a long time.
> 
> Posting on January 19 in honor of Adora's birthday, which sets the stage for our first meeting.

Yes, Adora Gray knows that it's a completely hack move to say that clubs suck. Now, with that acknowledged, clubs  _ suck _ .

The lighting is too low and Adora's night vision is shit so she keeps bumping into those low stools, which are the only seating. That's not access-centered! She's pretty sure at least. Also the bass feels like she's getting heart palpitations. The drinks are expensive, even though everyone's buying them for her tonight.

It's her birthday. Adora's never been a birthday person. She got bounced around a lot as a kid and never had foster parents who paid much attention or time to make friends. By the time she was a teen and had some more stability, her foster mother wasn’t much interested in celebrations. Or, really, fun of any kind. 

Once adulthood hit, Adora mostly associated birthdays with going out to celebrate other people and having to talk to too many strangers. Her friends are all so likable and they have rec teams and co-workers and childhood besties and exes that she has to mingle with once or twice a year. Friend groups blending is unbelievably awkward.

Adora herself doesn't have many friends. Just that handful of folks she met in college and works with now. Also, she refused to throw a party this year so she should have been suspicious when Glimmer suggested they get drinks after work. But she's always a naive fool when it comes to Glimmer so that's how they ended up at a club at 7:00 pm, just Adora, her less than 10 friends, and the bartender that's still trying to set up and doesn't appreciate being stopped every five minutes to make a vodka soda. So this clubbing experience is particularly maudlin and awful, even by her standards.

Everyone else seems to be having fun though at least. Bow and Glimmer are dancing and keep trying to drag her into it. Perfuma's having an  _ excellent _ time, her eyes so red that Adora wishes she could ask her for an edible just to zone out. The other random folks from work seem fine too. It's just Adora, trying to hold a fake smile so hard that her face hurts, who is feeling miserable.

“Oh, shit. Is this a wake?” a raspy voice whispers from the doorway. “Scorpia, you didn't tell me somebody died.”

“That's funny, Wildcat!” Adora recognizes the very loud voice of Perfuma's girlfriend. “But also very hurtful. Maybe try not to make that joke to anyone else?”

“I gotta be me, Scorp.”

It's a nice voice. Like a Natasha Lyonne-type.

Ooh, top ten crushes of Adora's teens and early twenties. She spends the next few minutes crafting this list in her head. It's been a coping mechanism since she was a kid – zoning out of anxious situations by cataloging random facts and info. It's a good way to burn time until it's acceptable to leave.

“What can I get you?”

“Hmm?” She glances up and the bartender is looking at her strangely.

“To drink,” they clarify. “How can I help you?”

“Adora, stop trying to buy your own drinks!” Glimmer screams from the dance floor. 

If there were other people here, this would be deeply rude. Adora can’t help her disapproving head shake at her friend.

“Don't worry! I've got it,” Scorpia yells. Heavy footsteps start padding up to her. “Happy birthday, buddy!” 

Adora has just enough time to turn around before Scorpia lifts her up into a huge hug. Adora used to think that she herself was pretty strong. And then she met her friend's girlfriend Scorpia six months ago and nearly had an identity crisis.

“Thanks,” she squeaks out, short on breath.

“Jeez, Scorp. I was just kidding about the wake thing. Don't actually kill the poor girl.”

If Adora was on her feet, she'd probably be startled and topple over another stool. The newcomer must have silent footsteps. Or, she realizes, they're in a loud club and she's tipsy.

Scorpia lets the blonde go, immediately rubbing the back of her own neck with a pincer in embarrassment. 

“Sorry about that, Adora. Just excited! Thanks for inviting me! Hope it's okay that I brought my best friend. This is Catra.”

With her pincer, she gestures to the right of her. Scorpia's dressed in a suit, which isn't unusual for anytime they meet her after work. Adora usually thinks she looks quite handsome in her professional clothes, especially with her undercut. 

But holy fucking shit, Scorpia looks like she's wearing basically rags next to the fucking  _ supermodel _ she brought with her. A lean, bronze cat hybrid with two different colored eyes (one cerulean, one  _ gold _ ), wild curly brown hair, and way too cool posture, who's wearing the absolute hell out of the grey windowpane suit and black button-down combo that she's sporting. Adora's always hated black dress shirts on people – it makes them look like they smell like Axe body spray – but Catra pulls it off. 

Adora feels as if she looks like a middle school sub next to Catra.

“Hi!” Adora greets her, voice sounding several pitches too high. She swallows and tries to not fully embarrass herself. “I'm Adora. Nice to meet you, Catra.”

She half-smirks in response. “You too. Happy birthday. Let's get you a shot.” 

Catra turns to the bartender before Adora can reply. It sounds like she orders shots for a crowd four times the size of their group. All tequila. Adora hates tequila after a terrible freshman year experience in college. She also doesn't do shots.

“None for me, thanks,” she tells the bartender. “Can you just get me a vodka soda please?”

“I can’t interest you in just one shot?” Catra asks. 

When Adora looks at her, she’s so shocked by being examined in that intense gaze that she freezes up for a second. She has to shake her head to force herself to snap out of it. Catra just tilts her heads curiously and smiles wider. 

“I bought the good stuff,” she sing-songs.

Adora shakes her head, maybe a bit more firmly than she needs to to get the point across. “No, I’m alright.”

She’s surprised that Catra immediately drops it and shrugs. When she turns to the bar to pay for their drinks, Catra drops her credit card. It’s gold and it’s so heavy that it lands with a thud on the bar.

Oof. Adora always forgets that Scorpia’s friends are all rich lawyers and tech people. Of course Catra looks so great. She’s had everything handed to her. Like those major donors Adora's spent the last two months trying to court, getting rejected by wealthy assholes that have no idea of the real needs of folks who don’t have their cushy lives.

Adora, drowning in debt, gladly accepts the free drink that Catra passes her. She says thanks to be kind and then promptly turns away from her and goes to the dance floor. It’s probably the last place she’d like to be but it’s the only viable option. Unfortunately, that gives Glimmer the opportunity to pull her into an awkward three-person dance triangle with her and Bow. Adora sways poorly and tries to make sucking down her cocktail into a dance move.

“Who’s that girl Scorpia brought?” Glimmer asks. “She’s hot.”

Adora makes a non-committal sound. “Her friend. Said her name was Catra.”

Bow coos. “That’s such a cute name!” He’s doing some sort of body roll situation that’s very distracting.

Glimmer’s looking at Catra so Adora thinks it’s safe to take a second glance. Huge mistake. Catra’s just staring back at them quizzically, while she holds a tray of shots that Scorpia’s fumbling to hand out to their friends. Adora sees Catra say something to her buddy then jerks her head in the direction of the dance floor. Now they’re heading over with the remaining drinks. Nowhere to hide anymore.

“Stop panicking,” Glimmer whispers to her harshly. “Why are you panicking? It’s your birthday. Can we have one nice day where you’re not absolutely  _ hopeless _ around an attractive woman?”

There’s a lot of ways to go with this. For some reason, Adora goes with a horrible lie. “She’s not attractive.”

Glimmer and Bow laugh directly in her face. So the first thing Catra sees when she walks over, looking like everyone else in the world should just  _ give up _ on suits altogether, is Adora’s friends cruelly shaming her.

They exchange introductions and shots while Adora stands there, pretending to be a tree. Just a tree on the dance floor. Pay it no mind.

“Adora, you have to take a shot,” Glimmer tells her, suddenly noticing the foliage that appeared next to her. Bow nods enthusiastically. Adora declines. “Come on. It’s your 33rd birthday. That’s a lucky number.”

“I don’t think it’s  _ lucky _ in any cultures,” Adora absently replies. “Lots of religious connections though. Some bad. Also it’s a thing in numerology but I never understood any of that when your one ex tried to explain it to me.”

Glimmer groans. A shot is placed very close to Adora's mouth. People don’t usually decline offers from Glimmer Moon for a reason. Adora takes the shot to avoid any conflict. Catra’s right – it’s the good stuff and it goes down smoothly.

“That’s the only one for tonight,” she tells Glimmer sternly. She finds it’s important to set clear boundaries with her friend. They won’t be heard but there’s hope for maybe one day.

Scorpia disappears with the tray. Adora’s not really sure how this happens but somehow she ends up dancing with (really, next to, awfully) Bow, while Glimmer and Catra fall into conversation. Her friend is laughing loudly and standing way closer than necessary to the newcomer soon. By the time that Adora’s sweating and her feet are starting to hurt (thanks, 33!), the other two are dancing and staring at each other intensely.

“I’m gonna go catch my breath!” she yells at Bow, loud enough that she thinks it might startle Catra and Glimmer. 

It does not. Bow is kind enough that he accompanies her back to the rest of their group. She sees him glance back a few times towards the new coupling though.

The next hour goes by in a blur thankfully. Classic party stuff. People talk about work. Make awkward conversation about what they’re watching or reading or doing on the weekends for fun. Adora answers when asked but doesn’t get too engaged. She tries to list as many episode names of her favorite shows in her mind as possible. She’s calling a cab at 9:30 on the dot, already emotionally preparing herself for surge pricing.

Eventually, she takes a break from all the hanging out to grab a cup of water. The club is starting to fill up now so it takes her a bit longer than her last trip to get a drink.

“Birthday girl,” she hears Catra say behind her. Completely unconcerned with all the other people waiting elbow-to-elbow for service, the feline pushes her way next to Adora. “Having a good time?”

“Yeah, it’s cool.” Adora aims for casual. She’s never pulled off casual and Catra’s amused face tells her that she overshot it once again.

“Cool,” the other woman repeats back to her. “Let me get you a drink.”

“Just water please.”

“No problem.” Catra, of course, just sticks out her hand and immediately a bartender is there. 

“So, you’re a Capricorn, right,” she starts up again as they take their glasses back to where everyone else is congregating. Adora just nods. “You don’t believe in numerology. Do you believe in astrology?”

The blonde fights to not roll her eyes. She’s sure the stars and everything are important to lots of people but it’s always been a little too woo woo for her. Also, a lot of people get really turned off if she says she’s a Capricorn. It’s kinda an unfair rap.

“Not really,” she shrugs.

“Well, you’re the cardinal earth sign so that makes sense,” Catra smiles. 

Adora feels like she’s being made fun of. But not in a mean way?

“Yeah, that’s more than I already know,” she replies.

“What’s your issue with astrology?”

“Mostly that people use it as short-hand now instead of getting to know each other. Or use it as an excuse for their behavior. Though, my favorite is how broad all of it is but somehow deeply resonates so much with each individual person, no matter how different they are. I had a friend once who got her moon and venus signs incorrect for years because she misremembered what time she was born and she claimed it changed her life when she learned her ‘correct’ chart.”

Catra gives her a look that she can’t quite decipher. Then shrugs with a chuckle and looks away to sip her drink.

Great. So the game plan for talking to this deeply gorgeous woman is to ramble and offend her beliefs. Adora’s trying to think of how to...well, not necessarily  _ backpedal _ because she’s not wrong, but smooth things over maybe, when Catra glances back at her. She’s biting her lip just a bit and for the first time, Adora notices how long and sharp her fangs are. She hopes her sudden intake of breath isn’t audible. Cat hybrids have really good hearing though, as some cursory research has taught her. 

Catra licks her lips next. “Look, can I ask you something?” Adora dumbly nods. “It’s your birthday so I don’t know if you’ve set any boundaries on hook-ups but…”

This stunning being wants to hook up with her? That feels impossible to believe. No, that never happens. Adora doesn’t make a good first impression. She knows this about herself. She’s a slow burn. An acquired taste. Also, it’s almost 9:30 and she should really get out of here. Plus, economic justice or something. She doesn’t totally remember what her point was earlier. She might not still be breathing.

“Hooking up?” she almost chokes on the words. And then she just can’t stop, “Oh, no, I’m not hooking up. I mean. I  _ have _ , but not now. Not, uh, a thing I do really. Um...yeah.”

Catra is kind enough to try to hold back her smile. 

“Well, you just made this super awkward,” she breathes out. “I was gonna ask if your friend was single and if you’d instituted a rule about no one going home with anyone until you’re safely in bed or something.” 

With her drink, Catra motions towards where Glimmer is talking to a circle of their acquaintances, everyone enraptured by her story. The feline gives Adora a onceover with her eyes. 

“You're hot and all, like a gay angry Brandi Chastain. But every word out of your mouth has been a total bummer, not gonna lie.” She manages to say this all kindly somehow. “Shimmer has a spark, though. That's kinda my type – mouthy femmes. In every sense of the word.” Catra finishes with a wink.

Adora has died and gone to lesbian hell. She always knew it would come to this.

“I want to get drinks with you some time though and hear the full list of things you’re annoyed by,” Catra adds. “You’re pretty funny. Not intentionally of course.”

Adora forces herself to laugh. That’s an apt description. Catra’s not being rude. Catra asked her to hang out. It’s much easier to focus on this instead of how mortifying the rest of this conversation is.

“N-no,” she stammers. “Glimmer’s single. Completely free to date whoever she wants. People can leave together whenever the spirit moves them.” What the hell is she talking about?

Catra looks at her oddly, which is understandable.

Adora’s alarm goes off on her phone. It’s officially her scheduled time to exit her own birthday celebration.

She places her empty glass on a table, telling Catra, “Getting drinks sounds fun. I’ll get your number from Scorpia. I gotta head out though. Thanks for coming.” 

She’s sure all of those words come out in one long sentence but she just waves to Catra as she grabs her jacket stealthily and leaves. This isn’t weird because she’ll never see Catra again.

* * *

Adora sees Catra again the next Sunday. Glimmer had gathered everyone together for what she claimed was ‘brunch’ but was actually bar food and beers in a new brewery. It was a really nice space. Adora found reading the specifications of all the beers to be a good distraction from interacting with other people.

She was seated towards the end of an indoor picnic table with Perfuma on the left and Bow directly across from her. Glimmer and Catra were at the other end but she could hear every single time that the former laughed. It didn’t make sense for this sound to be suddenly grating to Adora but it was.

Apparently, at the end of her party, the two did not go home together but they had exchanged numbers. They texted throughout the week. Adora’s pretty sure that this last-minute brunch was just an excuse for Glimmer to see Catra again without asking her on a real date. The issue with both working with her best friend and living in the same building as her is that Adora’s heard a lot about Catra in the past week. She actually sounds like a super cool person. Funny and smart and candid. Deeply out of Adora’s league, so good for Glimmer.

Adora excuses herself when she sees that the brewery has games. She’s playing Pac-Man alone when Catra joins her. Thank the Gods that she has the decency to not be in a suit today. Instead, she’s in an oversized grey crewneck sweater and tight dark blue high-waisted jeans. Adora thinks she looks so cozy and cute so she has to shove that thought down before Catra can read it on her face. Adora’s outfit, she realizes, is oddly similar.

“We look like girlfriend twins,” is what the other woman opens with.

Adora chuckles, without looking away from the game. She’s decided that it must be the suits that are so intimidating.

“It’s a common weekend uniform, I think,” she replies. “I like your sweater. Looks super cozy.”

“It is!” Catra’s very excited to confirm. “I own it in like 6 different colors.”

“Do you do that a lot? Buy a bunch of the same thing?”

Catra pauses to consider this. “In non-work clothes, yeah sometimes.”

“I own about 15 copies of the same outfit. It’s almost all I wear. So easy.”

Catra leans against the game machine, placing herself in Adora’s peripheral vision. “That little black blouse, gray trousers number you had on last week? What are you? Like the lesbian Steve Jobs of non-profit executive directors?”

Adora immediately is eaten and dies. In the game, to be clear, but possibly also in reality. Catra remembered what she was wearing last week. Catra knows what she does for a living.

“How do yo-”

“Glimmer told me,” Catra says. “Well, she was telling me where she works and then she had a whole tangent about how you founded a leadership development space for youth in the system and what a genius you were, yada yada. I guess the uniform is part of the genius persona.”

“It’s just easier. I’m usually in a hurry. It’s nice to be efficient.”

Catra just nods with a smile.

“Do you want to play?” Adora asks. Catra’s eyes light up in a way that makes the blonde think she might get teased a bit, until the feline decides to nod instead and move to the controls. Adora steps back to give her space.

“You know, when Glimmer told me about you, I made a rude assumption,” Catra shares. She’s effortlessly doing much better at the game than Adora was.

“Yeah, what was that?”

“Well, I didn’t  _ say _ anything to her but I...I guess I assumed that you were this fancy white woman with a savior complex who started this charity to rescue a bunch of marginalized youth from ‘the streets’ or whatever.” Adora’s about to open her mouth to loudly protest, when Catra continues. “But I looked you up. I mean, yeah, you’ve got a PhD and everything but I found a couple articles where you talk about growing up in the system and some of what you went through.”

Though the game’s still going, and Catra has more than doubled Adora’s score, she stops and turns away from it, leaning back on the console to face Adora.

“I’m similar. Grew up in a foster home my whole life. Have a fancy degree too now, though.” She pauses to consider. “Is it weird that I’m glad to meet someone who kinda went through similar shit?”

Adora can’t fight her small smile. “Not weird at all. Um...same, I guess, for me.”

Catra smiles in response. “Cool. Do you play Connect 4?”

“Can I be completely honest with you?” Adora asks. She’s not sure when she decided to feel a whole lot more comfortable in Catra’s presence but she’s going with it.

Catra nods.

“I am absolutely vicious in Connect 4,” Adora tells her with a straight face, somehow.

“No shit?” the feline pretends to be wowed. “Well, this I’ve gotta see.”

* * *

Catra’s in her office. Not like in Adora's actual office where she works, but Catra’s in the building. In the lobby, just hanging out and waiting for Glimmer to be done with work so they can have their second official date. The first, which Glimmer spared no detail on, was drinks at some cutesy place that she picked. The second one is dinner at a place that Catra’s picking and Glimmer has been so excited about it that she won’t shut up. Bow’s been twitchy all week.

Today, Catra’s wearing a caramel-colored three-piece suit with a white shirt and tan chelsea boots. She looks so out of place sitting on their fraying couch in their horribly lit lobby reading two-year old magazines. When Adora has to walk by, which she delays for as long as possible because of the suit and the person wearing it, Catra immediately looks up and catches her eye. Adora had watched 4 other people walk by. Catra hadn’t looked up a single time then.

“ _ Hey _ , Adora,” Catra draws out those two words like honey.

“Hi,” she returns. Catra’s wearing glasses today, thin round gold rims that should dim the effect of her eyes but somehow just spotlight them instead.

“In a hurry?”

Adora shakes her head. “I have to check in on a couple instructors but I have a few minutes.”

Catra motions for her to sit. They shoot the shit about their weeks, random things happening in their lives. Nothing too deep. If Adora doesn’t look directly at Catra, she can allow herself to remain mostly calm. The cadence of Catra’s voice is pretty soothing actually. She’s not a fatalist like Adora but she’s realistic and honest, even kind in her own way. It’s a fascinating mix.

Glimmer eventually interrupts them to announce she’s finally done with her last bit of work and ready to go. Adora and Catra both look at their watches and realize that it’s been 45 minutes since they sat down to talk.

“Fuck!” Catra yells. Then she immediately looks around to make sure none of the youth are there. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you so long.”

Adora shrugs, like this isn’t the first time that this has happened to her, “Not a big deal.” She’s just already processing how she’ll stay an hour late to make it up to everyone. It does not matter that no one else likely noticed or cared about what just happened.

Glimmer looks like she wants to ask why Adora is acting so uncharacteristically. But she takes one look at Catra and abandons her best friend of 15 years. 

“Okay, good night, Adora!” She literally pulls Catra from the room.

“You should actually call me about that drink,” Catra yells over her shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is mostly falling slowly in love, freaking out about it constantly, fluff, and navigating some very light drama. it's probably the softest gayest thing i've written in a long time.
> 
> will usually update on fridays until my other multi-chapter fic is done. the chapters for this story are a lot shorter (and there are so many more, oh god why) so i hope to move to bi-weekly updating when i'm down to just one story.


	2. Putting in the Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bow panics. Catra reaches out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to all the folks who read and engaged with the first chapter!
> 
> we're easing into it in this one. lots of talking, lots of texting, lots of bow-torturing.
> 
> The fake org Adora founded is called Leadership Advancement Project cause that's a bunch of vague words that don't tell you anything. Anyway, I realized Catra mocks the acronym but no one's even said the name of the place so it makes very little sense.

Catra and Glimmer have scheduled their third date for Thursday. Adora tunes out the details cause Bow is in the kitchen, slamming pots and pans. She doesn’t think it’s intentional, just that he’s maybe so stressed that he can’t figure out hand-eye coordination.

Third dates aren’t a big deal. But Glimmer is so... _enthralled_ by Catra or something that it’s rattling Bow big time. It’s not really just infatuation. There’s clearly some sexual tension. Mostly Glimmer’s just very interested in discussing specific phrases that Catra said to her and what they might mean or a gesture that she made or some thrown-out fact about her life. It kinda sounds like Glimmer isn’t sure if she wants to _date_ Catra or she wants to _be_ Catra when she’s all grown up. They’re all expected to play pop psychologists to this person they barely know.

Bow has had it. He refuses to say anything though, just pretending to go through with cooking dinner.

“Then she texted back ‘I bet you’d look amazing in that’ but, like, literally 2 seconds later,” Glimmer says. Adora lost the thread of this conversation so far back.

“What do you think she meant?” is the go-to follow-up.

Glimmer balls her fists and slams them down on the couch next to her. “I don’t know! Like, is she saying I should get the outfit? Is she saying that she’d like me to wear it for her?”

“Maybe she’s just saying you would look nice in it if you were really interested in buying it?” Adora offers. “You did say she was pretty straight forward, right?”

“Well, yeah,” she agrees. “But what if that’s just how she comes off and it’s not really her? I feel like she’s more mysterious than I originally thought. I never thought I’d be into that but it’s kinda hot not to always be 100% sure what she’s thinking.”

It sounds kinda like Bow throws a pot across the kitchen. Interesting that Glimmer doesn't seem concerned about knowing what he’s thinking.

“You should probably text her back,” Adora suggests. “And I’ll go help Bow with dinner.” 

Glimmer’s on her phone before Adora even finishes her sentence.

In the kitchen, Bow is, well, distracted. She’s pretty sure that he was making roasted chicken and vegetables, Adora's favorite. There’s no food on the counter or in the oven. 

“Can I give you a hand?”

“No, it’s all under control.” His voice is strained and he won’t turn around from where he’s facing the empty, probably not even turned on oven. 

Adora approaches him slowly and places a hand gently on his back. 

“How are you doing with all this?”

Bow glances at her with a grimace. “It’s fine. I mean, it’s _not_. But it kinda has to be, you know?” 

Adora nods. 

She realized maybe two weeks into knowing Bow and Glimmer, who had been best friends since pre-school, that they were in love with each other. She almost never realizes things like that. That’s how obvious it was. 

Over the next few months, she learned that Bow definitely knew how he felt about Glimmer, but didn’t want to risk de-stabilizing a friendship that had been a keystone of his life for so long. She learned that Glimmer felt something though she couldn’t quite articulate it and she would never act on it unless Bow made a move. Adora had lived through over a decade of them pining for each other. It was surprisingly chill and not overwrought. They had both casually seen other people and nothing like this had ever happened before.

“You seem maybe a little more annoyed than other times,” Adora points out.

“I know!” Bow whisper-shouts. “I don’t know why. I mean, yes, Catra’s like the coolest person that Glim’s ever had an actual thing for. I just feel like she’s already picturing Catra in her life. We talked about renting a cabin for a long weekend and she said she wondered what Catra would wear to the country.”

Well, shit, now that’s all Adora can think about too. Maybe an off-the-shoulder flannel? Do they make that?

“I think she’s having fun and she wants to keep the fun going,” Adora tries to excuse away.

Bow seems to consider that. He makes some progress towards dinner by actually removing the food from the fridge at least.

“Do _you_ like Catra?” he asks quietly.

“...I think she’s attractive,” Adora replies. This is all she will allow.

“Glim says she asks about you all the time. Just like how you’re doing, what your interests are, how you feel about whatever Glimmer’s complaining about.”

That’s normal, right? Then why does Adora feel like she’s breaking out in a sweat?

“Hmm.”

“I don’t know if it means anything. Like maybe Glimmer was telling me that to let me know she’s not 100% fully into the relationship?”

“It’s only been a couple of dates,” Adora reminds him. “Let’s all work on directly talking to each other and not guessing what everyone’s secret thoughts and feelings are, maybe.” 

This is not hypocritical because she has avoided thinking about Catra’s motivations, including just now that she’s learned Catra _asks_ about her, by pretending that the woman doesn't exist. Bow and Glimmer should give that a try.

“Work is slowing down a bit,” Bow comments. “Think you might start dating again?”

Adora laughs. “I think the people of this city are still scarred from the last time. The horrors I subjected them to – hours of awful, rambling small talk. The world’s most uninspired date ideas.”

“The escape room could have been cute.”

“I swear I didn’t know she was claustrophobic!”

That gets a genuine chuckle out of Bow at least and they’re able to move onto making fun of Adora’s failed attempts at romance. He starts to actually make dinner and by the time that Glimmer enters the room, talking about Catra’s responses to her texts, they’ve both calmed down enough to just ignore her until she decides to call Perfuma for advice.

“I mean, she’s dating Catra’s best friend,” Glimmer reasons. “She’d know best.”

“True,” Adora replies. 

She considers telling her friend to direct all Catra-related quandaries to Perfuma but the idea of knowing nothing about the woman bothers her too much for some reason.

* * *

A couple of days later, Adora awakes from her typical night of anxiety-riddled sleep to texts from an unfamiliar contact.

**Unknown Number  
** **1:41 am  
** Say I found a place that has GIANT connect four  
Could I lure you out with free drinks?  
Perfuma gave me your number btw i was getting grays waiting

**Adora  
** **7:12 am  
** I think you could pull off grays

Does it sound flirty? Maybe? She blames it on the early hour. She’s half-asleep so she can’t be held responsible for her text responses. Besides, Catra would look so fucking distinguished with gray hair, in her suits and her glasses.

Adora gets up to go for a quick run before work. By the time she’s back and getting into the shower, she sees that there’s new messages.

**Catra  
** **8:09 am  
** I’m flattered. Honestly, I’ve always wanted to go grey so I feel really seen right now

**Adora  
** **8:11 am  
** I know you’re being sarcastic but I’ll accept that i unintentionally affirmed you nonetheless.   
I see you. I hear you. You are welcome here.

**Catra  
** **8:26 am  
** Well, now you’re just being a dick

**Adora  
** **8:29 am  
** I hope you’re not texting and driving. It’s very dangerous.

**Catra  
** **8:31 am  
** Yes! I love to start my human interactions with reminders about car safety   
Tell me the one about 10 and 2

**Adora  
** **8:34 am  
** Do you know the statistics about text-related accidents?  
Because I will send you several articles

**Catra  
** **8:36 am  
** Woah woah, I don’t usually get to the dirty talk so early  
I’m seeing someone right now   
I don’t think they’d approve of the sexy safety content you’re trying to show me

Okay, this was definitely flirting but bringing Glimmer in as a speed bump. Before she could let herself fall into the trap of wondering about Catra’s motives, Adora closes her phone and goes back to getting ready for work.

It was a fine day and nothing too awful happened. Classes were going well. They still only had 4 full-time staff folks though so anything that wasn’t done properly or needed special attention, had to be taken on by one of them. Adora usually drew the short straw. Or rather, Adora usually volunteered herself to do it, often without telling others that she was adding more stuff to her plate. 

It was still relatively early in the year but she was already beginning to feel a little burnt out. Glimmer and Bow weren’t doing much better themselves and the Catra-sized hole in all of their conversations was keeping them from really talking more deeply with each other, decompressing, replenishing their personal capacities.

And so, Adora decided, what the hell?

**Adora  
** **3:28 pm  
** So this is annoying and I apologize  
GIANT connect four sounds amazing  
You wouldn’t happen to be free tonight, would you?

She didn’t have time to panic over whether or not this was a good decision.

**Catra  
** **3:29 pm  
** Left me hanging all day   
and then come back with demands to meet in THREE hours?  
Yes, Adora, lord and liege, I can take you tonight after work

Because logistics are Adora’s greatest passion, she forces Catra to help her come up with a plan to prevent drunk driving. They’ll both leave their cars at work, take cabs to the bar, their respective homes, and then back to work tomorrow morning. She makes Catra send her the address and a short, scheduled part of her late afternoon is spent reading reviews, picking out what she wants from the food menu, googling unfamiliar words on the beer menu, and trying to decide which section of the bar is the best to sit in.

Totally off-handedly, Adora mentions to Bow and Glimmer, once she can get them both in the same room, that she and Catra are doing a ‘getting to know you friend hang’. She’s not sure why she felt the need to phrase it that way. Or why she’s nervous under Glimmer’s searching gaze suddenly.

Their faces have a lot of questions; fortunately, their mouths don’t open to ask them. Glimmer gives her a strained smile and an awkward hug. Bow gives her a thumbs up and a punch on the arm that seems oddly genuine and relieved.

Adora gets there early because punctuality is important and because her anxiety manifests in really specific ways, don’t judge her. There’s a handful of people there already. Adora has plenty of time to look at booths and long tables and high tops and decide which is the best, based on proximity to the bar, space needed for games and food, distance from other patrons, and any drafts that might come through the door or overhead vents. After a quick survey, Adora is content that she’s found the perfect table and plants herself there to review what she’s learned about beer and how it can be utilized when selecting one of their many taps here. Who knows? Maybe Catra will be impressed.

Catra strolls in 12 minutes after their agreed upon time and does not acknowledge that she’s late. She’s wearing a hunter green suit with a gold silk blouse, colors that remind Adora of the comfort of a nice fall day. She will now also not be mentioning that Catra was late.

Catra doesn’t say hello. She just sits down and jumps right in. “I hope the food is okay here. I noticed you didn’t eat anything off that greasy menu when we went to the brewery.” 

Again, Catra noticing things about Adora. Her face starts to heat up.

“Yeah, thanks for thinking of that,” Adora chances a smile at her but Catra’s responding grin is too beautiful to look directly at for long so she has to quickly avert her eyes towards her menu.

“What’s your food thing?” Catra asks.

“Boring and lean? Mostly meats and veggies, low carb, low fat, low grain. I got into it when I was playing sports in school and never broke the habit.”

Catra tsks sadly in response.

“Guilty pleasure foods?”

“Dark chocolate sometimes. Vegan ice cream. Alcohol.”

“You poor, lost child. What sports did you play?”

Unconsciously, Adora feels her biceps flex. Catra definitely notices or else she sees a delicious plate of food walk by Adora’s arm at the exact same time cause she stares in that general direction for a minute, almost beginning to drool.

“Basketball, football, softball. I tried a few others but those are the ones I kept up with for years. Every once in awhile, I’ll convince myself that joining one of the queer leagues will give me a chance to meet more people, maybe get some dates. Doesn’t usually work out though.”

“Really?” Catra seems very skeptical.

Adora shrugs. She feels like she can be real with this woman. 

“I don’t make a great first impression. I can’t really cram all of the things people should like about me into 45 minutes. Especially not into 5 minutes when you meet someone and have to garner their interest immediately. I’m also just not in a lot of people’s desire spectrum. Current company included. I was never the right kind of softball dyke or the right kind of social justice queer.”

“I can’t imagine that you don’t encompass the whole of many women’s desire spectrum,” Catra replies, running her eyes all over Adora.

Adora isn’t too down on herself or looking for sympathy. Besides, she wants to know more about Catra instead of having the woman try to make her feel better about her dating life. 

“What about you? What’s your food stuff? Guilty pleasure foods? Sports?”

Catra must hear the eagerness in her voice because she smiles, before taking a moment to think.

“Hm. Don’t give me salad unless you want to fight. I'm lactose intolerant but I wasn't raised to be a quitter so," she shrugs in a silly way that Adora almost finds too charming. "I love seafood and steaks and rice and beans. Really, all meats. Guilty pleasures? Once or twice a year, I’ll eat some overprocessed awful food that I always wanted as a kid but couldn’t afford. Whenever I bake at home, I end up eating the entire dessert by myself in less than a weekend.”

“You bake?” Adora asks with some surprise.

Catra points an accusatory finger. “People are always so shocked when they learn that! Why do I not look like a baker?”

Adora shakes her head, not finding a real answer.

Satisfied, Catra says, “I believe you were the person who warned me against painting people with a broad brush instead of getting to know them.”

“Hey, I’m putting in the work here,” Adora teases.

Catra gives her a pleased smile. “That you are.”

“So you bake?”

“My court-appointed therapist suggested it when I was in high school,” Catra replies. “Apparently focusing on cookie dough is a good substitute for punching handsy straight boys in the face.”

There’s...a lot in that sentence and they haven’t even ordered drinks yet. Adora decides to just move past it. 

“How about sports?”

Catra makes a brief face that Adora can’t figure out. “I was a pretty decent skater, went to State in track, did gymnastics and dance for years. Briefly dabbled in volleyball.”

“We were both very busy kids.”

“Yeah,” Catra nods, “seems like we both had plenty of reasons to not be home.” 

Adora nods too, a knowing look passing between them.

Then a random question comes to her that she’s been dying to figure out. “You’re a lawyer. How are you so free? You get out of the office before us _and_ you had this whole evening open?”

Catra smirks. “Delegation. I am a grand master at delegating tasks and project managing.”

Adora can’t even wrap her head around this. “ _How_? I spend most of my time buried in work.”

“Stick with me, kid, and I’ll teach you my ways,” she says in a tone that’s suggestive enough to make Adora’s mouth go dry. “You didn’t hit me up just to talk about work, did you?”

Catra sounds almost disappointed. That can’t be right.

“I honestly just wanted to hang and blow off steam.” Adora pauses and then feels like she should add on, “Focus on some games and...getting to know you better.”

Catra leans forward on the table, getting a bit closer to Adora. “Good. Me too.”

* * *

**Catra  
** **10:17pm  
** Here’s the thing

**Adora  
** **10:18pm  
** Oh no

**Catra  
** **10:21pm  
** Ok, be like that  
i won’t tell you what the thing is

**Adora  
** **10:21pm  
** Ok. hi catra. Hope you had a nice day today.   
What’s the thing?

**Catra  
** **10:22pm  
** I’m going to start my own colony.

**Adora  
** **10:25pm  
**...are you in a cult?

**Catra  
** **10:27pm**  
No, i’m a queer separatist.  
I’m inviting you  
With those arms, we’ll be able to have wood and shit

**Adora  
** **10:27pm  
** I think a lot of that is in the lats

**Catra  
** **10:28pm  
** Well, how are your lats or whatever the fuck that is?

**Adora  
** **10:28pm  
** Pretty decent.

**Catra  
** **10:28pm  
** I can’t believe you corrected me just so you could brag about your muscles  
You in or nah?

**Adora  
** **10:33pm  
** Who else is invited?

**Catra  
** **10:34pm  
** Did you just ask ‘who all gone be there’  
About my fucking separatist queer colony  
Invitation rescinded  
Dream killer  
This is what i get for being nice to people

**Adora  
** **10:36pm  
** This was you being nice???

**Catra  
** **10:39pm  
** Fuck off  
I should’ve known it would end like this  
I just realized the other day that you’re such a jock that you named your org LAP  
Like you couldn't think of a non-sports word  
You don’t even do sports work!

**Catra  
** **12:08am  
** Shit sorry, did I piss you off?  
Are we close enough that I can mock your life’s work yet  
It’s really important work

**Adora  
** **1:15am  
** We’re called LAP cause systems-involved youth are being LAPPED by privileged kids

**Catra  
** **1:17am  
** Bravo  
You absolutely made that shit up just now  
Can’t even hate

**Adora  
** **1:17am  
** What are you doing up?

**Catra  
** **1:17am  
** Pretending to try to sleep  
Ate some snickerdoodles that i shouldn’t  
Having a staring contest with my cat

**Adora  
** **1:19am  
** Cat?

Adora, buried under the covers in bed but nowhere near asleep, sits up to see what picture Catra’s just sent. She does not hold her breath. When she opens the image, she sees the fluffiest, angriest gray cat. They look pissed off from possibly having been woken up for this photo op. 

Adora examines the background, in a way that could be considered curious and not creepy. The cat is on a very plush looking plaid comforter. She can just barely see what appears to be the leg of Catra’s pajamas, a baby blue that looks too precious to be something that her friend would wear non-ironically. Adora _thinks_ they’re friends now, at least.

**Adora  
** **1:21am  
** The floof!

**Catra  
** **1:23am  
** Yeah  
they’re a dick

**Adora  
** **1:23am  
** Aren’t all cats?

**Catra  
** **1:24am  
** Hey  
Watch it  
I know where you work

**Adora  
** **1:25am  
** Yeah, I should probably go to sleep  
So I can make it to said work tomorrow  
Goodnight, Catra

**Catra  
** **1:25am  
** Night, Adora  
Sweet dreams  
Ugh I thought I could pull that off but its too creepy  
Ignore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter is called 'sex date.' truly, what more can i say than that?


	3. Sex Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer and Catra are having a fourth date. Bow and Adora are having a breakdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooo, thanks to everyone for all the kind comments on the first couple chapters. Everyone is here for mess and I respect that.

Obviously all four of them were on a path towards destruction. 

Okay, maybe Adora isn’t really involved in any way. From the outside, this is clearly about Bow and Glimmer and Catra. Adora’s just the weird nosey dyke in the corner, eavesdropping.

So fine, the  _ three _ of them were on a path towards destruction. 

As a general rule, Adora didn’t meddle in people’s lives. She’d done it in the past, thinking she had a better perspective because she wasn’t as involved or that she was able to be more objective or whatever other excuses she’d made up. People were never grateful like they should be. She’d lost more than one friend over trying to be helpful.

Adora had already decided that the best way to deal with this was just to let the other three figure it out and provide emotional support when requested.

When Bow asked if he should confess his feelings to Glimmer, Adora told him to follow his heart. Vague and couldn’t be directly traced back to her.

When Glimmer asked if Bow was acting weird, Adora suggested she talk to him since she’d known him the longest and the best. Classic response.

When Catra asked her what her deepest irrational fears were, Adora spent two hours texting her arguments about immersion therapy, the weirdness of brains, and how birds actually are terrifying because they can fly into your skull and kill you with their beaks. Not mentioning Glimmer or Bow and not getting involved in any way. 

So yes, maybe she did have opportunities to intervene but it wasn’t her place. When the frantic texts started from Bow, she answered but mysteriously was now too busy to go to their apartment (up two flights of stairs – so far!) and too booked at work to talk during the day.

Bow spiraled for two days. Glimmer and Catra’s 4th date was later this week. Nothing definite was decided but. Having known Glimmer for so long, both she and Bow knew that Glimmer had particular little rules about dates. Usually no kisses on the first, unless the person seems really genuine and into her. By the third, she was fine with full-blown makeouts.

On the fourth date, Glimmer usually gave the green light for sex. 

In other news, Catra had mentioned noticing Adora’s arms. Which was probably an opening for Adora to compliment her but she overthought it. The idea of missing 100% of the shots you don’t take is only applicable if you’re even in the godsdamn game. Adora was not. Catra was going to have sex with Glimmer. She tried being happy for them but that felt weird so she thought it was best to just erase all of that from her mind. If only Bow would  _ stop texting her about it _ .

On the day of the actual date, Adora nearly worked from home to avoid Bow. She felt guilty about all the work she has to do and chickened out at the last minute. Thankfully, her lateness means Bow’s attempt to carpool with her is thwarted.

He’s waiting in her office when she arrives though, playing with the edges of his crop top polo. His eyes are absolutely bananas, wide, bright red, and flitting all over the place.

“Morning,” Adora greets, like she doesn't have a clue what's happening.

Bow makes an impatient face and closes the door behind her. “Morning, Adora. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just moving slowly today.”

He looks at her strangely, like he’s waiting for more. When she doesn’t add anything, Bow continues, “Glimmer’s taking this really seriously. She spent all of last night cleaning and creating a  _ mood _ .”

“You can’t change what Glimmer’s going to do, Bow,” Adora sighs. “You can change what your response is. How would you like to respond?” 

She realizes she sounds a lot like the therapist she saw for a couple years. Maybe that money wasn’t completely wasted.

“I don’t know!” his voice sounds so strained. “I don’t know why this is even such a big deal. I’m not a possessive person. Just...is the window closing? I’ve spent all this time trying not to ruin everything and by the end of this year, Glim could be moving in with Catra or something.”

Adora gets up from her desk and hugs him because she doesn’t know what else is appropriate in this situation. She assures him that things will be okay but only if he talks it out with his roommate and best friend, probably  _ before _ she has (what Adora imagines will be mind-blowing) sex with Catra.

But she’s trying not to think about  _ mind-blowing _ or  _ sex _ or  _ Catra _ in the same sentence ever.

Judging by Bow’s deeply agitated face every time she catches him in the hall throughout the day and his increasingly frantic texts into the evening, he does not talk to Glimmer.

At home, Adora is multi-tasking to keep herself busy. She’s doing some administrative work on her laptop, watching a college women’s basketball game on tv, and cooking supper. Maybe she’ll mop later or clean out her fridge. What a thrilling evening. Much more productive than a sex date, anyway.

She’s barely made it past the first step of dinner prep when someone knocks. It’s probably Bow, who will bring with him all of the mess that she’s trying to gracefully hurdle over. The knock is kinda weirdly musical, though. And Bow never knocks because he and Glimmer don't understand boundaries and made themselves keys to Adora’s place literally the day after she moved in three years ago.

Maybe it’s a delivery? The knock happens again, much louder and more insistent, before she gets to the door.

When she opens it, Catra’s standing there, leaning against the frame. She’s wearing a wool vest and trousers in a chocolate brown that almost matches her hair along with a light pink short-sleeved dress shirt. This is the first time Adora’s ever seen her arms and it turns out that Catra’s not slouching on the gym as she likes to pretend.

She cocks her head and smiles lazily. “ _ Hey _ , Adora.”

“Catra, hey,” she hates how breathy she sounds. “Want to come in?”

After her friend enters, Adora glances out in the hall, just to make sure Bow isn’t hiding around the corner or anything weird.

Catra looks kinda out of place in Adora’s space. Everything here is so utilitarian, no frills, almost no decoration. Not a lot of color. Adora would like to consider it ‘minimalist’ but she just really doesn’t have the need for more personality in her apartment. 

Catra standing there in the middle of the open kitchen-living room area seems like an interior decorator on a home improvement show, surveying the house before the complete demolition and reno.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she says, glancing around. 

Adora’s never seen her nervous so she isn’t sure what Catra’s tells are. But her ears are kinda low, her tail’s waving steadily, and she has her hands shoved deep into her pockets.

“Nothing to interrupt,” Adora laughs lightly. “Just some work and about to start dinner. You want a drink? Water, red wine, beer, seltzer?”

“Wine would be nice,” Catra responds. 

Adora heads into the kitchen and she follows. It’s really not surprising to see her survey the room and all of Adora’s cookware before immediately getting comfortable and jumping up to sit on the island, right next to the blonde’s laptop.

As Adora finds a glass and hopes that her open bottle of wine isn’t so old that it’s turned to vinegar, she tries the most casual opening she can think of. 

“Were you in the neighborhood?”

Catra quietly snickers. “Yeah, something like that,” she replies dryly. “I was upstairs with Glimmer. Is it okay if I talk about that?”

They’ve never really talked about Catra and Glimmer, not since the first night they met. Adora turns to take a good look at her. She can see the distress now, the way Catra’s body seems a little on edge. 

“Yeah, of course,” Adora replies, handing over the wine. She pours herself one too cause hopefully it’ll give her the courage to hear more about this relationship that she's not at all envious of.

“Well, your friends are fucking weird.” 

Adora laughs, maybe a bit too loudly. Catra’s responding smile is almost relieved. 

“I made reservations for dinner, like we had agreed, but then Glimmer invited me to come over instead. But I got there and the vibe was fucking  _ grim _ , dude. Like, for a minute, I thought this might have all been some long con to use me as a ritualistic sacrifice.”

Adora shakes her head. Catra's been watching too much true crime. 

“Bow would never allow blood on the furniture.”

Catra chuckles. “That’s not reassuring, ‘Dor!”

Nickname. Catra gave her a nickname.

“Sorry, Cat,” she tries to mimic her tone. “Then what happened?”

“I don’t know. Bow was there and I got the feeling that he was definitely asked  _ not _ to be. Glimmer barely had time to show me in before they were whisper-arguing everywhere. Look, I’m cool with poly shit but I’d like a heads up about what kind of drama I'll be navigating.”

“Oh, they’re not together,” Adora tries to clarify, knowing that this is probably where she should stop talking.

“For real?” Catra doesn’t seem convinced. “Lots of mixed messages then. Bow certainly was acting like I was trying to fuck his girlfriend.”

“Did he throw you out?” Catra didn’t have a coat or anything when she came to the door, but Adora couldn’t imagine Bow losing it that much.

“No! That’s the weirdest part!” She slugs back the rest of her wine and Adora refills it without a word. “First, he acted like he wanted me to stay and we’d all have a group hang. Glimmer wasn’t fucking having that. Then, she said maybe I should leave and we could reschedule but Bow was spouting off hangout ideas. But! When I offered to leave, they  _ both _ felt bad and Glimmer suggested that maybe I wait outside for a minute and give them a second and she basically crowded me until I was out in the hallway. With no jacket or my phone or keys.”

It takes Adora a short while to picture this all, her two best friends rushing around their apartment in a panic, refusing to actually say what’s bothering them both. Catra trapped in the middle and then pushed out the door like the oblivious third party in a rom-com.

She laughs, long and loud. At some point, Catra joins in.

“How’d you end up here?”

“Ugh, Glimmer mentioned you lived in the same building at one point. I had to find your name on the mailboxes in the lobby.”

“Want some dinner?”

“I’m gonna be here that long?”

“Very likely. When they fight, it gets mixed up with a bunch of other unresolved arguments from forever ago. Bow used all of her shampoo once and it descended into a fight about how he forgot her 19th birthday. Which turned out to not be true – Glimmer was misremembering. It lasted two days though.”

Catra sighs. “Yeah, bring on the food then. Guess I better make camp for the night.”

Adora nods and turns back to the oven, taking the moment to check her phone, which is lying on the counter. There’s a message from Bow that makes no sense, just a bunch of letters and ‘freakingout!’

She starts making dinner, while listening to Catra talk about her day, mostly waxing poetically on the restaurant that she’d made reservations at, listing all of the dishes on the menu that she was looking forward to. It would be an easy transition for Adora to suggest Catra take  _ her _ there one day instead. She focuses intently on properly trimming her asparagus to keep that thought out of her head.

Adora’s about to place the steak in the pan when Catra stops her story mid-sentence to say, “You better season that if you expect me to eat it.”

“I did season it,” she replies with a frown.

Catra’s off the island and standing less than an inch away from Adora. She reaches around the blonde and examines the meat. Adora looks to her for confirmation and Catra just shakes her head grimly.

Adora’s forced to watch in shame as Catra re-seasons the steak with a generous amount of salt and pepper. 

“This is a nice cut. Show it some fucking respect.” 

She drops it into the pan and continues closely supervising. After a couple of minutes, Adora moves to flip it.

“Don’t you dare! Adora, that thing is still gray!”

With a laugh, Adora asks, “Do you want to take over?”

“I’m a guest. You’re supposed to show me hospitality.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Is there anything else I can get you?”

Catra shrugs. She’s so close that Adora can practically feel her shoulders rising and drop against her back. 

“I’ll go watch the game. Where’s your comfiest blanket?”

“On the chair in my bedroom.” 

Catra starts to walk away immediately. “Make sure the steak’s actually brown on both sides.  _ Medium rare _ . And for the love of the Gods, please don’t cook the asparagus until it’s mush. A quick, hard sear is fine.”

Adora knows how to cook. She just didn’t realize she was doing it incorrectly for years.

When dinner’s ready, they eat on the couch in front of the game. Catra actually enjoys the food. She won’t let Adora add any condiments though, but she’s right, the steak’s done so perfectly that it doesn’t need anything. Catra heckles both basketball teams and identifies each lesbian to Adora, in case that information is helpful. She bases these assumptions on how they run.

It’s deep in the third quarter, when the front door opens suddenly. 

“Well, Bow ruined my sex date and I can’t find Ca-” Glimmer freezes when she sees them.

Adora’s on her feet in an instant. 

“Hey, Glim!” She’s using her lying voice, which is weird cause she's pretty sure she's not doing anything wrong.

“Heeeeey,” she draws out in response, eyes taking in Adora, Catra, the empty plates, Catra wrapped in Adora’s favorite blanket. “...What’s up?”

“Sex date, huh?” Catra smirks, her tail thumping slowly but steadily against the couch.

Glimmer returns the devious grin but blushes. “Sorry about all of that. It’s jus-”

Catra interrupts. “No need to explain. Doesn’t feel like it was about me at all. Can I go up and grab my stuff? I imagine I’m not staying over tonight.”

Glimmer laughs awkwardly. “Uh, no, probably not. Staying over, I mean.”

They look at each other for a long moment.

Adora clears her throat. “I’ll grab your stuff, Cat. You two can take a moment to talk.”

She runs out of her own apartment before they can say anything. 

Upstairs, Bow is acting strange. He’s disappointed that she’s not Glimmer but at least relieved that she’s not Catra. After a bit of explaining on Adora’s end, she picks up Catra’s stuff and waits patiently for Bow’s side of the story.

All he says is, “We talked. We’re not  _ done _ talking yet. But I guess she was worried about Catra. Can you apologize to her for me please?”

When Adora returns to her apartment, Catra and Glimmer are both laughing hysterically on the couch. They quiet down when Adora enters, glancing at her with a weird shared look that makes her feel oddly out of place. She starts clearing plates to give herself something to do, while they hug tightly. 

Adora pretends not to watch them share a short kiss, Catra’s clawed hands framing Glimmer’s round cheeks to hold her. It’s brief but even busywork isn’t enough to distract her from how  _ charged _ the kiss seems.

Glimmer sounds a little dazed when she says, “Uh...Sorry. Again. We’ll talk soon, okay?”

Apparently just a short peck from Catra's lips has the power to put a full-grown woman in a stupor. That's not intimidating at all.  


“Everything okay?” Adora asks, once they’re alone again.

“Hm. Remains to be seen,” Catra says. “We've got some stuff to figure out later.” Catra sits back and relaxes into the couch, cocooning herself into the blanket. “Shame about the sex date, though.”

Adora can  _ feel _ Catra watching her out of the corner of her eye and has to hold her breath to not make a move. It takes her far too long to think up a rebuttal that she thinks Catra will enjoy.

She keeps her voice mild when she says, “Who knows? The night’s young.”

Catra snorts. “I just got rejected, Dor. At least wait until the sheets have cooled.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 preview - you can't run away from your problems on a treadmill. Everyone's talking about Catra and Glimmer and...Scorpia?


	4. Emotional Support Hat Trick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora's not the 'feelings' guy. Don't tell Bow, Glimmer, and Catra that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, don't mind me. just trying to pick up the mess that these gays created.

“I don’t understand,” Adora says. “Any of this, really.”

Glimmer offered to come with Adora to work out. Glimmer hates working out. She either feels guilty, is trying to butter her friend up, or she’s having a breakdown and this is a cry for help. A combination of all three is very possible.

So far though, Adora’s just been an audience of 1 for Glimmer’s directionless musings on Bow, Catra, and the nature of relationships in general. On the treadmill next to Adora, wearing a shimmery pale pink tracksuit and moving at a very slow trot, Glimmer huffs.

“Well, I know how Bow feels but I don't actually know if we're on the same page about what comes next. And then with Catra…”

Adora holds her breath, which is very hard to do at the pace she’s running. She has yet to hear a clear idea of what any of them are planning.

“We can’t just have one conversation and be done with everything,” Glimmer explains.

“Why not?” She tries to keep the frustration out of her voice.

“The queer by-laws state that there must be at least 8 hours of mutual processing. We can’t upset the rich history and traditions that’ve been handed down to us.”

All of those words are awful.

“So what are you doing now?”

Glimmer shrugs. “I don’t know. Catra and I texted. We talked on the phone a little bit. I think we’ll probably meet in person when we’re super sure what we're doing.” She pauses and glares out the window. “I guess, what I _want_ us to be doing, really.”

Adora nods like she understands. She doesn’t, not really. It definitely seems difficult to be in Glimmer’s position, having two amazing, caring, attractive people who want to be with her. That’s never once been _Adora’s_ personal experience but it must be emotionally and mentally taxing.

She’s rarely jealous, especially of Glimmer. Lately, she’s been working on channeling this new feeling into healthy productive things, like color coding her expenses and setting a new personal record for deadlifting.

Glimmer peers over at her as Adora speeds up on the treadmill, trying to burn off the odd stress in the pit of her stomach.

“Has she said anything about me?” Glimmer asks. She’s open and self-conscious in a way that Adora hasn’t seen her in a good while, very different from the fiery fierceness that she’s been cultivating for years.

“Not much,” Adora answers honestly, already a little out of breath. She and Catra do a magnificent job of talking all around this whole situation.

“She’s surprisingly chill about this all.”

The blonde nods. “That’s kind’ve her whole...vibe, I guess the youth say.”

Glimmer fights a derisive smirk. “The youth,” she repeats to herself, clearly mocking her friend. Louder, she says, “I’m relieved about that, don’t get me wrong. If she was freaking out, this would be an actual fucking disaster. But deep down? Kinda feels like she wasn’t totally invested.”

“It was only a few dates,” Adora points out. “Were you?”

Glimmer scowls and that feels like answer enough.

“How are you planning to figure out what you want?” she inquires.

Glimmer just groans.

“I-I don’t know, okay!” she answers, throwing her hands up in the air. “What would you do?”

No. No no. Adora isn’t qualified to give out advice on romance or making decisions in a timely manner.

“What am I saying?” Glimmer asks herself, apparently coming to her senses. “You’d probably make a pros and cons list.”

“I’m not that predictable,” she replies, just as Glimmer says the same thing in a mocking tone. She does her full Adora impression and everything, lifting her nose up in the air, setting her jaw firmly, narrowing her eyes, and making her voice monotone.

Adora just speeds up in response.

“So,” Glimmer continues on, “Pros.”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Adora mumbles. It feels...rude? Private? Counterintuitive to her continued denial of Catra as a sexual being?

“It’s fine,” Glimmer assures her. “Why don’t you list a few pros about Catra? You two are friendly, right? That’ll be helpful.”

Adora speeds up again. She actually probably can’t last long at this pace. With luck, she’ll pass out and Glimmer will let this go. This is Glimmer Moon though, so she’d probably just revive Adora and ask her to stop playing around and take this seriously.

Good things about Catra?

“I don’t think I’m an objective observer.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Glimmer returns dryly.

“Because I’m friends with both Catra and Bow,” Adora adds.

“That’s actually the definition of being objective in this context. You like them both.”

“Catra. is.” Adora reluctantly starts, trying to drag this out as long as possible. “A really good listener, actually. Supportive. Fun. Smart and hilarious.” Intense but in an exciting way. Surprisingly silly. _Warm_ , which Adora wouldn't have expected.

She might have trailed off and zoned out there at the end.

“Uh...you want me to list cons?” Adora offers, pretending that she's discovered any yet.

“Nope. That’s...really all I needed to hear,” Glimmer says, sounding a bit sad. Her eyes on Adora are soft and fond.

“So, did that help with your decision?” Adora asks, ignoring that completely.

The answering sigh makes her lower the treadmill speed for the first time and focus on her friend. Glimmer can be a bit much most of the time but this is a real issue and not the many ‘issues’ that she and Bow cook up, like the debate on whether they were too old to still have twinkle lights or the interventions they’ve organized to get Adora to download whatever app of the week they’re obsessed with.

“Adding dating feels like it would be putting a lot of pressure on me and Bow’s relationship,” Glimmer admits. “We really only get one shot at this. If it doesn’t work out, we’ve known each other too long to just go back to how it was before. What if we don’t get it right?”

“You’re not getting married tomorrow. I think you just have to start with figuring out what you both want out of your relationship right now. Needs, expectations, boundaries. And then you...take a baby step.”

This is trash advice. The problem is that _Bow_ is the relationship advice person. Adora is the person who reminds you that you should start a 401k or helps you move. Unfortunately, it seems like they've all collectively decided to blame Bow for creating this whole disaster. Adora's never been more grateful for him.

Glimmer takes a second to nod, taking in Adora’s words.

“You’re right,” she says quietly. “I just need to focus on what I really, genuinely want. What do I want to have in my life?”

Instinctively, Adora glances at the controls to raise the speed again. She fights it though, she’s proud to say. Instead, she reaches over and pats Glimmer’s hand.

“Do you want to leave and get drunk?”

Glimmer’s big purple puppy eyes look up at her with so much gratitude. “You’re so good to me.”

“Don’t decide you want to date me too,” Adora jokes.

“I’ve seen you freak out while trying to choose food at a buffet, you straw-headed worrywart. There’s no chance of that.”

Adora laughs with fake relief and turns off the treadmill to begin some light stretches.

“So, you’re gonna let Catra down easy soon?”

Glimmer smirks, beginning to walk away, “I think you’re just going to have to be a little more patient.”

Adora follows, _affronted_ . “What does _that_ mean?

Glimmer just giggles.

* * *

**Catra  
** **10:23am  
** Taking a poll  
Has the existence of douchey shuffleboard bars ruined the sport?

**Adora  
** **10:49am  
** I wasn’t aware of this trend  
I imagine modern technology ruined the sport maybe?

**Catra  
** **10:53am  
** What’s your preference?  
Floor or table?

**Adora  
** **10:58am  
**...you’re still talking about the game, right?

**Catra  
** **11:01am  
** Tonight after work?

When Adora shows up at the address that Catra sent, she’s relieved to find it’s just a moody, local dive. It’s fairly narrow and the bar itself is made of dark old wood, like this place was built a few decades ago. Not seeing Catra anywhere, Adora scoots through the front room to find a larger space in the back with a shuffleboard table against the right-side wall.

After those texts, she honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Irrationally, it felt like there might be a 50% chance that she was visiting Catra’s apartment for the first time. She was too nervous to look up the address and prove herself right. Or worse, realize she was wrong and then have to admit to herself what she’d been secretly maybe kinda hoping for.

“I’ve never played this before!” Adora tells Catra, when she shows up late. The blonde knows she sounds too excited for this, and that it’s at least partially due to how Catra looks so nonchalantly confident strolling in.

Today's a blue suit day, like Catra's eyes need any damn help standing out. A game is a welcome distraction.

“It’s a lost art,” is all the feline says in return.

Catra explains the rules twice and Adora is still sure that she’s making them up as she goes along. They have to break for 10 minutes for Adora to look up the _actual_ rules online, much to Catra’s feigned outrage and cries of betrayal. She’d feel bad about how much time they spend on this if literally anyone else in this bar was interested in playing this ancient game.

Adora plays very thoughtfully, trying to get all of her pucks into safe zones where she hopes that Catra will ignore them. Catra throws like a wild woman, knocking Adora’s pieces all around the board and ensuring their mutual loss.

“Catra!” she yells on the third time it happens. 

The first and second times had been written off as mistakes or overexubance. This is clearly war.

Catra smirks in response. “Guess I don’t know my own strength.”

Adora falls for this and glances down at Catra’s arms. They’re covered by a flowery pale blue shirt, a rare pattern from her, that is so cute with the dark blue blazer she hung on the back of a stool earlier. But Adora can see her flexing slightly, lean muscles straining a little against the fabric. When she glances back up at Catra’s face, her friend is fighting valiantly to hide a grin.

“I’m gonna grab a beer,” Catra says, giving her an out. “What do you want?”

“Just a seltzer.”

“You’re not drinking?”

Adora makes a face. “I’m still kinda hungover. I took Glimmer out last night.”

They'd ended up going a little wild, much to Adora's embarrassment. Glimmer had recounted Bow’s full confession of his feelings for her until they were both in drunken tears over how wonderful he was. 

It’s Catra’s turn to make a face now, going bashful.

“Did you want to talk about that?” Adora asks.

Catra sighs, “Only if you’re okay with it.”

“You know, I _will_ take a beer now,” comes out quickly.

When Catra returns from the bar, Adora has been mostly successful in giving herself a pep talk about how everything’s fine and she has no stake in any of the choices that people around her are making with their lives and their mouths. Catra interrupts this inner monologue by knocking her shoulder into Adora’s to grab her attention. Their hands touch as the feline passes her the beer and the lies Adora just told herself go flying right out of the window.

“Did you know I dated Scorpia?” Catra asks, before taking her turn and continuing their game.

“No,” Adora says, truly shocked. It makes it a bit hard to focus on her next turn. “I can’t see that.”

Catra just laughs. “Yeah, neither could I. Probably why it didn’t work out. We met freshman year of college. I said hey to her cause she looked super gay, which was mind-blowing to me, of course. Then I had this giant, awkward scorpion kid following me around everyday.”

She pauses for her turn, somehow bumping Adora’s last puck off the scoring triangle and landing them both in the gutter. Zero points for them both.

“You know the object is to play to _win_ , right?” Adora asks. “Not just play to ensure I lose along with you.”

“This is your first time and suddenly you’re a shuffleboard expert? I’m applying a variety of strategies. You just don’t know it yet. Come on.” 

Catra places her hand on Adora’s lower back to guide the blonde to the opposite end of the table for another round.

Adora distracts herself from the contact by asking, “What happened with you and Scorpia?”

Catra takes her turn first. “Not much of anything. We went out a few times and I realized it wasn’t meant to be. I think she was more into the idea of me without actually knowing me. So I avoided her for weeks and then I apologized and she started following me around again, but just as a friend. I didn’t even really have my baby gay sexual awakening until two years later.”

Adora’s well aware that she’s an adult. So she’s also aware that she shouldn’t be feeling all sorts of things just at the sound of Catra’s voice saying ‘sexual.’

“And you’ve been best friends since?” She makes a big show of shooting her puck and intentionally _not_ bumping Catra’s.

“Yep.” With impressive control, her puck gently stops right next to Adora’s. “We’ve even been roommates a few times.”

Adora’s so busy thinking about that, that she doesn’t pay much attention to her and Catra’s next shots. Scorpia was kind and blonde and buff. Was Scorpia just not Catra’s type either? 

“Why did that come to mind?” she asks.

“Just been thinking about it lately,” Catra answers lightly. She shrugs and then shoots her last puck.

Which part, Adora wonders. The breakup or dating a friend?

Well, there’s really no need to worry too much about it now cause she’ll probably be ruminating on this when she should be sleeping tonight. Adora goes to shoot her last puck as Catra watches her closely.

For the first time, she understands the depths of the other woman’s cunning. Catra’s managed to sneak most of her pucks behind Adora’s and is even using one to block another from any possible attacks. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see a smile full of fangs. She just lets the last puck fly, hoping for the best. She takes out one of Catra’s at least.

“7 for me, 0 for Dor. I’ll let you keep score. I know you love it.”

Adora’s embarrassed to admit that she does.

“So, Glimmer...?” she starts, unsure of how she could even help.

Catra shakes her head softly. “I’m gonna try this wild idea where I just talk to her directly.”

“Innovative,” Adora jokes to hide how deeply fucking relieved she feels.

* * *

Bow sets a beer in front of her. Adora fights the urge to vomit.

“Oh, no! Did you want vodka?”

“Gods, no!”

People seated at the bar next to them startle and shoot her a dirty look for yelling.

Bow had stopped by her office earlier that day and practically begged for Adora to join him and watch football. Bow hates football. It’s too brutal and slow. The matchup tonight is actually a pretty good one and Adora kinda wishes she had been invited by Catra instead, who she imagines has a really silly system for deciding which players are the gayest or have the best shoe collection or something else random.

Three nights out in a row is something that Adora’s never done, not even in college or her 20s. She feels just a little bit like death warmed over.

She accepts the beer anyway, already thinking of how much extra time she’ll have to add to her next few workouts to make up for how bizarrely she’s acted this week. 

Bow has the decency to look remorseful when he turns to her with pleading eyes two minutes into the first quarter. As she imagined, they’re going for an emotional support hat trick this week.

Bow’s never struggled to understand his own feelings. At least, not from the outside. He’ll probably just want to hear Adora’s thoughts on Glimmer.

“How is Catra doing?” he asks.

“Um. What?”

“Is she okay? You two have been hanging out pretty regularly, right?”

Adora shrugs. “We’ve seen each other a couple of times, yeah. She’s, uh, fine?”

Bow nods. Then he smiles, before patting Adora on the back.

“That’s nice. New friend!”

Bow turns back to watch the game.

“I was thinking of getting into crocheting,” he says after a minute.

“Oh?” Adora asks, completely lost. “I hear it’s something good to do with your hands while you watch tv.”

“Exactly! And think of all the cute scarfs and stuff I could make for everyone.”

And it continued on, the two of them talking about a hobby that Adora never understood, like nothing else important was happening in their lives.

Bow reaches and pulls Adora’s beer in front of himself. He gets the bartender to replace it with a seltzer.

Mutual denial. Man, Bow really gets her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> coming up in chapter 5: decisions are made, clothing is bought, cats are appeased.


	5. Quality Adora Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer is mature (according to her). Adora and Catra go shopping. Approval is granted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday! Here's an unusually long chapter.
> 
> Not really a content warning, per se, but Adora's got some low self-esteem things that show a lot more in this chapter. I think she's great, everyone in this story thinks she's great, but we're gonna see more of her struggling to believe and accept that.
> 
> In other news, Co-Star's [How to Seduce a Capricorn](https://www.instagram.com/p/CKzPFirLcrA/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet) (third slide) felt like a spoiler for both this whole story and my entire life.

Glimmer spends 45 minutes of the workday sitting in Adora’s tiny, drab office, once again recapping her most recent conversations with Bow. She now thinks everything he does is the most romantic thing that's ever happened.

"He got up early to make sure my mug was washed," she says with awe. "Isn't he the best?"

That feels like it's just one level about common courtesy. 

"Yep," Adora replies, trying (and failing!) to ignore her friend and finish this grant report.

Glimmer then spares a full 20 seconds in her unending monologue to say, "Oh, I saw Catra. So that's done. Anyway-"

"What happened?" She was never going to be able to finish the report with Glimmer there anyway. Might as well take a short break.

Glimmer shrugs. "We talked. I apologized. We agreed on being friends." She's obviously antsy to get back to discussing Bow. Almost as an afterthought, she adds, "She also apologized but I didn't think you two were that big of a deal."

"Uh," Adora coughs. "What? What 'you two'? ‘You two’ what?"

"Hanging out. She said it happened organically, it was innocent, blah blah. I made her promise that you'll name your first born after me."

Glimmer's being too blase. It  _ was _ innocent and organic. 

Oh, Gods. Hearing Glimmer talk about it out loud makes it feel very different.

Adora starts spinning very quickly. "Look, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to overstep. We really are just friends. If you feel uncomfortable with-"

"My Gods, Adora. You're too old to act this undignified."

"We're the same age."

"Exactly. And I'll be the mature one and say I know you'd never act like a scumbag. You hung out. Who cares? I meant what I said about the baby name though." She suddenly looks very serious, in that way that only Glimmer can over something theoretical and impossible. "I  _ will _ follow up." Immediately, she drops back into the wistful tone that's now reserved for talking about her new relationship. "Anyway, and then in the  _ shower _ , Bow-"

Nope. "Don't you have those contracts due today?"

"Oh? Yeah. Fine. I'll leave you alone to freak out."

"I'm not going to freak out," Adora yells after Glimmer as she leaves, but her voice is already nearly screeching so no one believes her.

* * *

“We’re gonna be pals,” Catra explains as Adora struggles to focus on her dinner. Her tone is very light for someone who’s recounting their recent breakup.

“That’s good? Is that what you want?”

Catra looks at her silently for a moment then attempts to smile. 

“Yeah. We think that’s what’s best for everyone. Honestly, we’d kinda been dancing around it since the start.”

Catra probably already knows that Adora’s been updated, since Glimmer’s never kept a secret in her whole life. Even so, Catra’s version of events is somehow already more telling.

“Hmm? What’s that mean?”

“It was still early,” Catra replies, “But we weren’t all in and we agreed that we wouldn’t have been able to get there, with or without the...outside factors. No hard feelings, though. We cleared the air on literally everything.” Almost to herself, she whispers, “She’s so fucking nosey.”

“How does this all make you feel?” Adora asks awkwardly.

She does obviously care about Catra so she needs to hear the answer, no matter how it irrationally feels like it could be potentially devastating. Catra bites her lip while she thinks, a fang peaking out adorably.

“This is gonna sound weird but I’m happy for her. For both of them. I’ve been in love a couple times. I’ve  _ never _ been in love like those two idiots are.”

Adora nods with a smile. Bow and Glimmer  _ are _ really cute and happy together, whenever she can catch a moment where their faces aren’t conjoined or they’re still endlessly processing.

“You're being really cool about all this,” the blonde comments. 

“This isn’t even in my top  _ three _ of relationship drama, Dor.”

“What’s number one?”

“I tried to make my girlfriend jealous by hitting on our couple’s therapist. She turned me down by kindly informing me that they were fucking and she took fidelity  _ really serious _ ,” Catra deadpans. “To be fair, my regular therapist had tried to warn me about the signs but, honest to Gods, I thought they needed so many extra one-on-one sessions cause my ex was a shitty fucking communicator.”

The corners of Adora’s lips twitch against her will. “Gods!”

“It's fine. You can laugh. It's pretty hilarious now.”

Adora politely only laughs a little. Catra smiles patiently at her.

“My dating history reads like a lesser Etherian tragedy. So, yeah, I've got a high tolerance for fuckery. Plus, I like you. I like your weird friends for some fucking reason. Bow was a class act and even took me to dinner to make amends.” Catra pushes the food around on her plate, thinking for a moment. “It's been awhile since people have been so aggressively nice to me.”

The two of them sit in silence for a moment, just enjoying the meal that Catra ‘supervised’ Adora cooking, while the blonde mentally examines her friend’s words. Catra's a secret softie underneath her suits and other armor.

“Why don’t  _ you _ date?” Catra asks. 

“Uh...what?”

This is probably just friendly curiosity. So Adora shouldn’t start internally panicking like she’s in an interrogation. She does anyway.

“You’re kind and caring and smart,” Catra continues, like she’s stating facts that are not controversial in any way. “Unintentionally funny. A good time when you aren’t thinking too much. People should be falling all over themselves to submit an application to fuck you.”

“Busy,” Adora grunts out trying to bury herself in her plate. She’s already making plans for an exit strategy from this conversation. Go to the kitchen and refill her water. Excuse herself to the bathroom.

Bow and Glimmer have been occupied a lot lately, understandably. Adora gets lots of texts from them and way too many details at work but it’s honestly nice to have a reprieve from being an awkward third party to their shenanigans.

She’s been spending more time with Catra instead, which Glimmer is weirdly supportive of. Very chill hangs, the feline calls them. She comes over to Adora’s place to correctly teach the blonde how to prepare dinner or they go to the movies or they get drinks. Catra’s actually the first friend that Adora’s had in a long time who wants to do these one-on-one hangs with her, especially outside of a crisis, instead of group outings or making her be the third wheel.

If they were kissing or holding hands, they would basically be dating.

Adora shifts awkwardly. Now dating’s the only word she can think of, running on a loop in her head. Mocking her. 

“Wait, why are we talking about this now?”

Catra ignores her question. “We’re all busy, Adora. You’re not special just because you’ve appointed yourself savior of the world. Why are you  _ actually _ not dating?”

When she fidgets weirdly again, Catra puts her fork down and turns to her. 

Moving a clawed hand to Adora's knee, Catra tells her, “I know we haven’t known each other super long, Dor, but you can tell me shit. I’m good with secrets. And besides your deplorable cooking, I don’t judge.”

“You make fun of everyone in every single show or movie we watch.”

“I don’t judge in  _ real life _ ,” Catra amends. “Going on TV is basically asking for it.”

“It’s not anything terrible,” Adora begins. “I  _ am _ busy. I told you it’s hard for me to meet people.”

“Sure. There’s setups and plenty of other options. Glimmer could sell you off for a dowry.”

“I’ve...always been busy. I was really focused on school for a long time and then I was focused on LAP for a long time. There’s not a lot of time left over for other big commitments and I don’t want to disappoint anyone.” That last part stings a bit, getting a little too close to the real truth.

Catra eyes her skeptically. “You always have time for me.”

Adora takes a sip of water in a futile attempt to not blush. Yes, she makes time for Catra. It’s actually surprisingly easy now that she has the smug bastard helping her with work issues. Catra is really good with reminding Adora when she doesn’t have to do a bunch of extra tasks or when she needs to leave someone else alone to figure out things for themselves.

And also, maybe getting to see Catra is a good motivator to set better boundaries at work and say no occasionally.

“I do. You make it easy though. You help me with stuff. We don’t have to do a lot of planning. It doesn't feel like a chore.” She pauses. “I don’t think I’m saying this correctly.”

“No, I get it,” Catra says but her voice sounds less light than before. “I’m convenient.”

Adora puts her fork down too and turns to Catra. “What I mean is, I  _ really _ like spending time with you so I make that time.”

Catra makes a sound that she’s never heard before. Like a very quiet trill. Feeling much less worried now, and feeling very silly about that, Adora goes back to finishing her food.

“So if you have less work, I have even more quality Adora time? Good to know.”

* * *

LAP has a gala coming up. This is absolutely horrific. Every year, they end up spending too much money on a stupid party, the venue, the drinks, the food, and it never feels like a good enough payoff. So Adora spends the whole time leading up to it worrying and pulling her hair out then the entire actual evening talking to people who don’t get the work and don’t even donate. It’s exhausting.

Glimmer and Bow seem to be guilty about their new romantic relationship and all the time they’ve been spending together, which they’ve channeled into putting lots of energy into the gala. Perfuma’s been helping out too, along with the small group of dedicated volunteers that pitch in each year.

And then there’s Catra, who Adora is  _ certain _ must be behind on her own work now. Not only has she taken over a bunch of the gala tasks, after assigning herself as  _ Chair _ , a position that she made up, she’s also got her assistant, Mermista, working on it nonstop.

This gives Adora an opportunity to learn a lot about Catra. Turns out she knows everyone, or at least every queer person in the city. She’s frightening when she wants to get something done. But she can also be cloyingly sweet if she needs something. She’s a great leader and an amazing motivator. She pronounces gala as ‘gay-la’ and Adora’s tried to figure out if it’s a joke and she’s really starting to think it’s sincere.

Adora has also learned some things about herself. When she thinks someone will actually finish something, she doesn’t have a problem letting go. Relishes it, even. She needs to learn more about building long-term partnerships for annoying moments like this gala, or hire a charming genius like Catra. Also, she has a crush on Catra. She can admit that now.

They’ve been spending a lot of time together. Catra lets Adora pretend that it’s work but sets a firm time for when ‘work’ ends and they can just hang out. They’ve added lunch meetings to their usual socializing. Catra insists on taking her to very unnecessarily fancy restaurants where people do business lunches so they can talk about fundraising progress. The self-appointed Gala Chair has asked her firm and a bunch of her friends’ companies to purchase sponsorships and has her assistant following up with all of their usual donors. Somehow, Catra also got an ex to give them a great deal on a venue, another ex to do the catering for cheap, and someone that’s not an ex but is apparently equally complicated to help with rentals. She needs basically none of Adora’s guidance but neither of them mentions this when they’re ‘working’ together. 

Catra’s gotten more...handsy. They hug a lot. Catra loops her arm through Adora’s when they walk in public. She often looks like she wants to do more, especially when they’re relaxing on the couch together. Catra’s always leaving space for the other woman to join her under her blankets but Adora never has the guts to do it. 

She actually had to research it to see if this kind of physical touch was common with cat folks or if Catra was just into her. It could possibly be both, but she’s still afraid to talk to someone reasonable, like Perfuma or Bow about this. Glimmer is out of the question obviously, with all of her teasing smiles and not-at-all-subtle remarks about Adora and Catra.

A week before the big event, Catra picks Adora up from work to take her shopping. She knows this is a trick. Catra is making her con face and definitely not driving in the direction of the nicest mall. 

“I’d like to remind you that I don’t need any clothes,” Adora tells her. “And more importantly, I can’t  _ afford _ any new clothes.”

“I’d like to go over your personal budget sometime,” Catra offers. She gets an indignant gasp in response. “Not everything’s about you, Adora. Maybe I just want to browse.” 

“Uh huh.” She looks at the open map on Catra’s phone. “At this fancy dress shop.” A thought hits and she almost feels disappointed. “Are you not wearing a suit to the gala?”

Catra’s smirk is so broad that Adora can see it, even though she’s facing the road. 

“Don’t worry. I have a new tux, gorgeous velvet with a shawl collar. This is an amazing excuse to wear it. We’re just...having fun today.”

Adora has no idea what a ‘shawl collar’ is but her friend’s eyes light up when she’s describing this suit. Catra knows a lot about clothes and fashion. Even her car is some fancy trendy thing. She’s truly so far out of Adora’s league that it’s laughable. And very pathetic that Adora can’t let go of this stupid middle school crush.

The store Catra takes her to is...a lot. Glimmer would love it honestly, which is usually a sign that Adora’s in the wrong place. It’s going for a rich hippie party girl vibe that she finds totally disorienting. She doesn’t want to offend Catra, though, so she tries for a smile.

“This place is the fifth circle of hell,” the other woman whispers. “But they sell good shit. Trust me.”

Catra leads her around the room, absently touching everything. She keeps her eyes on Adora the whole time, rather than on the merchandise. Every couple minutes, she asks if the blonde’s seen anything that she likes. After receiving several no’s, Catra finally just begins picking up dresses and asking if Adora’s into them.

“None? You don’t like anything here?” Catra’s clearly trying to not seem frustrated.

Adora shrugs. “Sorry. I just can’t picture you in any of them.”

Catra turns to put a dress back, mumbling something to herself. Out loud, she tries, “Maybe don’t think of  _ me _ in it? Just think of something that looks good.”

This is a trap. 

“You’re not buying me a dress, Cat.”

“Of course not,” she waves dismissively. “Now, do you like any other colors besides black and gray?”

Adora tries to think. She’s not good under fashion-related pressure. 

“What color is your tux? Maybe that’ll inspire me.”

“Ooh!” Catra begins to fidget excitedly, her tail speeding up its movement a little. “Don’t laugh at how gay this is, but it’s purple. Like a really deep purple.”

Adora might accidentally make a face. She doesn’t look good in purple. But! They’re not buying her a dress so that’s fine.

“We’ll aim for a lavender,” Catra suggests. She immediately begins pulling Adora towards light purple cocktail dresses and a few evening gowns. All of them are way too extravagant.

Eventually, the two of them argue until they settle on a long sleeved wrap dress that Catra’s not very excited about, an off-the-shoulder sleeveless satin number that the feline enthusiastically insists on, and a ruffled nightmare that they both agree is horrible but absolutely have to see Adora in. She tries on all three, figuring that at the very least, this will give her ideas of what style she should look for on sale at the mall or at a thrift shop. Catra nearly comes into the fitting room with her but decides to wait outside when they both get too flustered.

As expected, Catra grumbles when she sees the first dress and laughs out loud at the third one. Adora tries the second one on last. It feels ridiculous to be wearing so little material in this weather, with the neck, shoulders, and upper back unprotected in this dress. Mostly, the amount of exposed skin makes her feel super awkward in her body.

“Cat,” she calls out softly. “Can you come in here?” It’ll be bad enough to show her friend. Adora can’t imagine anyone else in the store seeing her in this.

Catra’s there in a flash. “What’s wr-” 

She has the presence of mind to close the curtain behind her before she completely freezes up. Except her tail, which starts going bonkers.

With a frown, Adora asks, “ _ Gods _ , is it that bad?” She takes a second look at herself in the mirror, turning her back to Catra.

The feline lets out a quiet growl, something Adora can’t remember her ever doing before. She turns back quickly to make sure everything’s okay.

“Fucking hell, Dor,” Catra whispers. She must notice her tail for the first time cause she reaches back and grabs it with one hand. “Well, thank the Gods you didn’t wear this out into the store. You would have driven every other shopper out in shame.”

Adora laughs nervously. “You can’t be serious. I look absurd, Catra.”

“You just look tense. Just try to relax, weirdo.” 

But she steps closer to Adora, which does not help her calm down at all. Catra places her palms on the blonde’s shoulders and turns her back to face the mirror. Clawed hands begin to slowly run up and down Adora’s arms. It’s surprisingly soothing until Adora realizes that what’s really lulling her into a false sense of peace is the quiet, steady purr coming from Catra. Adora knows she’s already addicted to how vocal her friend’s been today.

“That’s better,” Catra whispers. Adora nods, even though she has no idea what she’s referring to. “Maybe try opening your eyes.” It sounds like she’s smiling.

Adora hadn’t noticed that she’d closed them. When she looks back in the mirror, she does look a lot more comfortable in the dress. She catches sight of Catra standing next to her and imagines them at the gala, her on the feline’s arm. The disadvantage of such a revealing dress is that she can see herself blush all the way down to her chest. Catra laughs and moves to rest her chin on Adora’s shoulder.

“Does that mean you like it?”

“I love it,” she whispers. Then a little louder adds, “I’ll have to find something like this that I can afford.”

“So you’re sold on lavender?”

This would be smooth if she could get through it without stuttering, she knows. “Y-yeah. As the ED and the gala chair, we should probably match, right?”

Catra just holds her gaze in the mirror, still smiling. “This is embarrassing – I completely forgot to buy a ticket. I could be your date?”

Adora imagines that her pure panic must be what makes Catra’s grin dim a little. So she rushes to nod and say, “Definitely, yes.”

To her relief, Catra lights up again. 

“Cool. I’ll pick you up and everything. Now, come on. Get out of this and give it to me and then you can get dressed.”

Adora does as told and by the time she’s out, Catra’s hovering near the store’s front door, holding two large shopping bags.

Their next stop is a building she’s never seen before. Catra doesn't even use the map so she can’t snoop. They leave the bags in the car. 

In the elevator, all Catra says is “Don’t make a big deal out of it, okay?” 

Adora doesn't have time to ask what before Catra lets her into an apartment. She tries to take in as much as she can – the huge, pristine chef’s kitchen, the extremely comfy looking couch in the living room, the view of downtown from the balcony, the huge king size bed in a bedroom that’s large enough to fit Adora’s entire apartment. This is  _ Catra's _ place.

Catra takes her straight into the closet. It looks like something one would see in a magazine, racks and racks of suits and outfits and shoes and accessories.

When Adora looks at Catra, she just repeats, “You said you wouldn’t make a big deal out of this.”

“I didn’t actually agree to that! You should know how verbal contracts work, of all people.”

With a chuckle, Catra begins looking at a section of the closet that’s scarves. She pulls out a couple shawls and folds them over her arm.

“Do you have shoes?”

Does Adora own shoes? Yes. Would they be acceptable to wear to a fancy event with Catra? No, not all.

She shakes her head and Catra immediately pulls her over to the shoe section.

“Honestly, with my claws, we might end up being the same size. Grab something in silver or gold or...black maybe?” And then Catra exits and leaves her alone.

It takes her a while to go through everything cause there's many pairs. Catra's told her that she doesn't even really like wearing shoes. Completing that task, Adora decides to snoop around a bit. There’s a pajamas section, which is so fucking cute. Catra does indeed own several pairs of baby blue pajamas, in an old-school style like someone’s dad. They’re all monogrammed. This doesn’t feel like real life.

Adora’s stopped in her tracks, though, when she sees what’s directly behind the PJs. Lingerie in a variety of colors and materials. Including some elaborate looking leather harnesses. She maybe zones out a little just….imagining things.

“Anything catch your fancy?”

The blonde jumps in the air, the shoes in her hands flying everywhere. Catra’s chuckle is so low that it sends shivers up her spine. Adora chances a glance at her and she looks deeply pleased with herself.

Adora tries to cover but can’t imagine that it sounds convincing at all. “Sorry. Just admiring...your  _ pajamas _ .”

“Yeah, that started as a weird inside joke when Scorpia and I were in the dorms and now it’s my life somehow. Sure there wasn’t anything you wanted to borrow or...get a closer look at?” Her voice drops again towards the end of her sentence.

Adora starts picking up the shoes as a distraction, just shaking her head. She has to brush past Catra to get out of the closet and try to get some air in the huge bedroom. She works on avoiding thinking about how close she is to Catra’s bed. 

On said bed, there’s a couple gorgeous gold necklaces, a bracelet, and a few pairs of earrings laid out on top of the shawls.

It all comes together. Finally. She’s honestly a little embarrassed that she didn’t catch on earlier.

“Di-did you buy me that dress? Catra!” 

Adora’s not angry, just overwhelmed. She moves to take a seat on the bed and then doesn’t feel like that’s appropriate.

“Relax, dummy,” Catra replies. Of course, she doesn’t look concerned about this at all. “I mean, take a seat on the damn bed and also chill out.”

Adora sits as told. It’s the softest bed she’s ever been in and she wants to stay there forever. Catra goes back into the closet and grabs a small duffel, where she begins putting all of the accessories for Adora.

“Yes, I bought the dress. And a couple more, just in case. If you hate them, you can take them back.”

Adora groans. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I know. I  _ wanted _ to.”

With a sigh, the blonde tries to level with her, “Look. I’m not a... _ refined _ person, okay? I-”

Catra interrupts with a laugh. “I know who you are, Dor.” She sits on the bed too, not leaving much space between them. “I’m not trying to change you. I just want you to be comfortable and have fun. I thought choosing what to wear would be easier if you didn’t have to think about it. So we just took care of it.”

Adora nearly cries from how thoughtful that is. She  _ is _ really fucking relieved that she doesn’t have to spend a whole weekend shopping and trying on a million things, Glimmer getting increasingly frustrated with her.

But shit. That dress was $1,200. That’s more than she pays for rent each month. And Catra’s bought her other pieces.

“Don’t freak out about the price!” Catra says quickly. “And don’t do something ridiculous and try to pay me back.”

“But Cat-”

“Nope. You do so much, Dor. You spend all your time taking care of everyone. Just let me take care of you.”

She crushes Catra in a hug, whispering thanks into her hair. When the arms around her waist begin to pet up and down her back, they linger in the embrace for a little longer.

After several moments, they’re interrupted by a sullen meow coming from behind Adora. Catra lets go of her to glance at the grumpy, fluffy gray house cat who has suddenly now appeared next to the pillows. Melog, she’d learned over text. They look surprisingly expressive in person.  _ Judgy _ .

“Really, dude?” Catra asks. They narrow their eyes at each other, seeming to have a familiar silent conversation. Catra loses when Melog makes an angry sound. “Fine.”

She gently pushes Adora to lay back on the bed, while the blonde tries not to panic. 

“Uh, Cat? They don’t seem to like me and you’re putting me in a pretty defenseless position right now.”

“It’s fine. They just want to give their approval of you.”

Catra takes her friend’s hand and places it at the base of her own mane. It’s as soft and thick as she had imagined, not that she actually  _ had _ imagined this at all, not really. Adora isn’t sure what gets into her but she begins immediately petting and massaging, shifting her fingers through Catra’s hair and stroking the fur on the nape of her neck. It isn’t long before Catra’s eyes close slowly and the sound of her purr reaches Adora. She’s not sure if she’s ever made anyone feel this good.

Melog starts fidgeting, kneading the bed. Carefully, eyes still narrowed, they move towards Adora and then settle onto her lap. She pets them behind the ear until they purr in tandem with their owner.

“Approval granted?” she asks Melog.

“You basically have free reign of this bed now,” Catra mumbles, her tail tentatively moving to wrap around Adora’s wrist and hold it in place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i couldn't let all that glitra mess go too far, sorry. honestly, the real love triangle is between adora, catra, and adora's own awkwardness.
> 
> this story kinda has four distinct arcs (aka different awful things that i do to adora for no reason). this is the end of the first one and the beginning of the second, which is literally all fluff. cause soft gays are soft.


	6. Princess and Her Lord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gay-la, a conversation, and cookies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank satan it's friday.
> 
> also thank **you** for all your kind comments and fucking weird and hilarious comments and kudos and everything else.
> 
> warnings? not really. low self-esteem. a bizarre discussion of a particular kink. someone working so hard to lie to themself that i was vicariously embarrassed for her.

The gala isn’t awful, thanks entirely to Catra. She basically takes care of every piece that Adora’s ever complained about. She has someone edit and refine all of Adora’s talking points and her pitch speech. It’s probably the clearest Adora’s ever described the work and she’s only vaguely annoyed that they removed all of her very important statistics. No one ever cares about statistics.

That afternoon, Catra even surprises her with two hair and makeup people who come to the office to offer their services to the staff. 

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” Glimmer squeals.

Bow’s already examining the eyeliner options.

“Catra’s a very generous friend,” Adora remarks. “Is this too generous? I feel kinda guilty.”

“ _ Friend _ ?” Glimmer repeats. “I’ve never had a friend spoil me like this. What have I been doing wrong this whole time?”

“Just enjoy it, Adora,” Bow replies, ignoring his girlfriend. “Please. Catra obviously wants to do this and you deserve it.”

Adora nods, still feeling a little reluctant. That must show on her face because Glimmer smirks at her.

“You know, Bow, we never fully ruled out becoming a triad.” She doesn’t take her eyes off Adora the entire time.

He glances over at her quickly in confusion. Then a look passes between them and Bow smiles slowly.

“I mean, we do deserve to be spoiled, too.” Bow abandons the makeup to focus on the blonde. “What do you think, Adora? Should we invite Catra to be in a throuple with us?”

An embarrassing “huh?!?” is all that comes out.

They both crack themselves up. Adora is happy that they’re together, maybe just not at this moment.

“Don’t worry,” Bow says, finally composing himself.

“Catra’s moved on anyway,” Glimmer teases.

The two of them spend the next hour torturing Adora with this joke, dropping hints as they pass her office or misusing their internal messaging system to try out throuple names. They land on ‘Glitrow’. Adora never manages to not freak out, even though the name kinda sounds like the world’s worst electronic dance party or a drug you take to get rid of a skin condition.

Adora tries to convince Catra that they have to be at the venue very early to help out with setup but only gets a laugh in response. Her  _ date _ (!) shows up only 45 minutes in advance, telling Adora that the point of paying staff is to have them actually cover everything.

Catra, of course, looks fucking stunning. Adora drops a full file folder when she appears in the doorway of her office, smirking roguishly.

Her thick mane is pulled up in an intentionally messy high ponytail. The tux is as gorgeous as she described it, a rich dark purple velvet that only she would look good in, perfectly tailored and hugging her curves. She pairs it with a crisp white shirt and a black silk bow tie, which are more traditional than Adora expected.

She’d barely been able to be a functioning person around Catra in a suit. Catra in a  _ tux _ is an experience that Adora had not properly prepared for. It’s a sight that belongs in a movie about a jewel heist, not standing in front of Adora and looking at her expectantly.

“You begged me to come early and you’re not even dressed?”

“H23r$*dfkjn,” is the sound Adora’s pretty sure she hears from her own mouth. 

Catra’s smirk morphs into a full toothy grin.

“It’s nice, right?” she asks, pretending to smooth down her jacket.

“Come on, Adora,” Bow says. “Let’s get you ready!”

She startles at his voice. On Catra’s right is Bow, in his shiny silver suit and signature crop top, and Glimmer, wearing a pale pink sparkly tight dress with long sleeves that stops a couple inches before her knees. The stylist has teased Glimmer’s hair so it’s curly and wild and they’re both wearing some very bright eye makeup.

They look like they’re going to a New Year’s Eve party and not a boring work function. So how did she miss that they were standing there  _ the whole time _ ?

“Hurry up. I want to see which dress you chose,” Catra adds. She’s still smiling and Adora maybe gets lost a little bit, trying to reboot her brain and remember how to smile back.

“Fucking useless,” Glimmer whispers before dragging the blonde from the room.

“This is a disaster,” Adora sighs.

As soon as she got home from their shopping excursion, Adora had decided on the lavender dress, since Catra seemed so taken by it. It's still gorgeous but somehow fits her all wrong now. That's even more apparent with the way that her hair is pinned up – her shoulders are too broad, her chest is too big, and on and on. Glimmer’s tried adding all the jewelry that Catra loaned her but it’s hopeless.

“It’s just bad lighting,” Glimmer argues. “Everything looks awful in this bathroom. I’ve been telling you that for years. Do you think Catra raised enough for a remodel?”

“That’s a massive misuse of funds, I’m pretty sure,” Adora replies. “Were my boobs always this big?”

“Yeah, you’ve just been hiding them. What an exciting day out for them!” She leans right into Adora’s chest to say, “Long time no see, little buddies!”

Adora swats her away and pushes her out of the room.

She takes a moment to try to center, like Perfuma would suggest. When that fails, she tries to remember the last thing that was calming. Gentle claws on her arms and a purr rumbling against her back. 

Slightly more relaxed, Adora still feels like a schlub playing dress up, but when she walks out, Catra, Bow, and Glimmer all stop talking and just stare.

“I can’t  _ believe _ you bought this, Catra. You’re the architect of your own demise,” Glimmer stage-whispers with a smirk.

“Adora, you look amazing,” Bow sings sweetly. 

Catra just nods dumbly in agreement. She’s seen Adora in this dress already so the blonde isn’t quite sure why it’s still having this effect. But she can’t help but be thrilled by the slim possibility of being wanted by Catra.

Once they reach the gala, it’s Adora’s turn to be stunned. The place is gorgeous and it actually looks  _ fun _ for a change. More like a fancy dance party than a stuffy fundraiser. Somehow Catra got them the lounge at a hotel that she swore was the coolest in town. Adora would still like to be home by 11:00 if at all possible, but she doesn't think she’ll be miserable the whole night.

Looking at the hors d'oeuvres, the decorations, the silly photo booth, she turns to Catra. 

“Are you sure this is under budget?”

Catra just laughs. “You are truly pragmatic. Yes, we’re under budget and we’ve already hit our fundraising goal. You can just relax and schmooze.”

“I don’t think I can do those two things at the same time.” Adora takes another look around. “I can’t believe you did all this. Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Anything for the kids or whatever,” Catra mumbles, looking away shyly.

The schmoozing sucks but it’s bearable. Catra doesn't leave her side all night, letting herself be led by Adora all over the party. Catra insists they move arm in arm, but every once in a while, a clawed hand moves to the small of her back to guide her around the crowd and Adora can help the small shiver that goes through her body. Unsurprisingly, everyone is charmed by her feline companion and Adora can’t stop beaming every time someone tells them how nice they look together.

All of her usual supporters are so excited that the gala isn't insufferable for once. She gets to meet a lot of new people, apparently all from local law firms and businesses that Catra has ties to. Adora hadn’t actually fully grasped how much money her date had brought in until she was introduced to literally dozens of people eager to meet her, learn more about LAP, and tell her how glowingly Catra talked about her. She pretty much has a permanent blush all night.

Most excitingly, Adora gets to meet Catra’s elusive friends. Catra is mortified by this. Entrapta, a tech genius so confident that she wears  _ coveralls _ to the party, mentions that she knows all about Adora cause their mutual friend won’t stop talking about her. Mermista, Catra’s assistant, says something similar but in a much more direct way. It's hard to hear over the music but Adora's pretty sure she asks if they're fucking. 

Scorpia and Perfuma coo lovingly when they see Catra and Adora together.

“Wildcat!” Scorpia yells. “Oh, gosh. You two are just so cute together. I knew you’d hit it off! I told Perfuma – I said, ‘Adora and Catra would mak–’”

“Sweetie,” Perfuma interrupts with a smile. Her eyes are unusually stern, though. Scorpio takes a second to catch on before she theatrically mimes zipping her lips. “You both look lovely. Go have some fun before your big moment, Adora,” she adds with a wink.

Scorpia squeals through her zipped lips. A couple of people behind her are forced to duck the excited swing of her tail.

Catra’s idea of fun is hiding by the bathroom for 10 minutes and critiquing everyone’s outfit to distract Adora from her nerves.

The speech goes well enough. Adora only stumbles a little, though Catra claims that it isn’t noticeable at all and that she was appropriately inspiring. Adora makes sure to give a huge thanks to Catra, which just makes her blush bright enough to show through her fur.

When people finally stop coming up to her and focus instead on the open bar, Catra pulls Adora to a quiet spot in the corner.

“How are you?” Catra’s checked in every few minutes. This is annoying when Bow does it. Catra makes it seem endearing.

“Still fine,” Adora giggles. “You?”

“I’m having a blast,” she responds with a smile. “What do you need? Water? More food? A cocktail? Bathroom break?”

Adora shakes her head. She wants something but feels a little silly about it. It’s not something she usually indulges in.

“Do you want to dance?” she whispers. 

Catra glances around the room. “Yeah, but no one’s asked me yet.”

“Hey!” Adora says, tugging on the jacket of her tux. “ _ I’m _ asking.”

“ _ Are _ you?”

Adora playfully huffs. “Catra. Would you please dance with me?”

“Duh,” she replies easily. “Anything for you, Dor.”

“I’m not good at it so lower your expectations completely.”

“I’ve seen you trip over thin air. I think I’m adequately prepared. Just relax. I’ll lead.” And Catra carries her off to the dance floor.

It’s as awkward as she’d expect. Catra’s amazing, moving lightly on her feet and actually keeping to the beat of the fast pop song. Adora’s all over the place, trying not to flail and hit anyone or step on Catra’s toes. They keep a respectable distance between them, like a middle school dance.

A slightly sexier song comes on, with deep bass that has Catra’s hips moving a lot more. Adora’s pretty sure she just stands still and watches in a trance. Until Catra grabs her hands and pulls them close together. Claws take hold of Adora’s hips and begin to move her to the beat, drawing her further and further into Catra’s space.

Catra smells like cedarwood and cloves or something musky and classy like that. She keeps her eyes on her date’s face the whole time, completely confident and natural in her movements. Adora’s light-headed just watching her.

To keep herself steady, Adora wraps her arms around Catra’s neck. Her hands land right at the base of the other woman’s mane, the area that she had been allowed to touch the other day.

“Can I pet you here?” the blonde whispers.

“Of course, princess,” comes out breathily.

“Princess?”

“Dor, you look like royalty right now. And everyone's finally treating you as such.”

“If I’m a princess then what are you?” she asks with a grin, feeling a bit confident.

“Your Lady.” Adora immediately blushes. Catra doesn't notice cause she's busy making a dissatisfied face. “Your  _ Lord _ fits better.”

Understandably, Adora immediately loses her footing and, quite possibly, her understanding of the world as she knew it. She accidentally grasps Catra’s mane a bit harder than she intends to as strong arms lock behind her back to keep her upright.

“Sorry.”

Catra lightly shakes her head, like it’s no big deal. But when they begin moving together again, they’re pressed much more firmly against each other, chest to chest. Hip to hip. Close enough that Adora can feel the light purr coming from Catra through the thin material of her dress.

It feels safe, being held by Catra in this way. It also feels very risky, like this is too much to hope for. 

When the music transitions back to a faster song, it’s both a relief and a heartbreaking travesty. Catra frowns cutely but Adora takes a step back, trying to cool down with some deep breaths.

“Water?” Catra asks.

Adora gives her a relieved smile and a nod.

“Come on, princess.” She puts her on Adora’s lower back to lead her towards the bar. “Let’s find a warm spot afterwards. You’ve been shivering all night.”

* * *

“I have something to tell you.”

Catra looks up with a start. They’d been reading side-by-side in silence for the past hour on Adora’s couch. It’s a Saturday but Adora had finance reports to review and Catra had offered to keep her company. So far though, she just seemed to be scrolling true crime memes. Catra's sense of humor was weirdly terrifying.

“Are you in trouble? Do you need a lawyer? Is that why I'm here?” She’s not using her  _ actual _ panic voice, which makes Adora a bit calmer. Just her fake panic voice that’s always somehow charming and cute.

That throws Adora off a bit already. 

“I'm attracted to you,” she blurts out. This isn't how she practiced this all week.

Catra smiles enigmatically. “Is that what you have to tell me or is that why I'm here?” 

Adora scowls. It’s hard to predict Catra’s responses under normal circumstances so she shouldn’t be surprised by how nonchalant the woman is treating this very serious issue.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Catra says, not sounding remorseful at all. “Is this bad?”

It all comes out in one big rush. “I don’t want to make things weird between us. And I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I realized what was happening and I’m such a bad liar that I felt like I should probably just be honest with you. You’re really important to me, Cat, and I don’t want to fuck this up.” 

Catra’s smile finally slips, probably overwhelmed by how much Adora just escalated herself. She furrows her brow a bit, tail just slowly weaving in the space between them.

“Dor. You do realize that I’m a giant homosexual, right? It’s okay to be attracted to me. Encouraged, even.”

“Yeah, I know it-. Wait... _ encouraged _ ?” 

Catra waves a hand dismissively. “It’s fine. I thought you were. I’m attracted to you too.”

Adora blushes. Catra’s basically a goddess – she’s gorgeous and brilliant and fancy and always smells nice. The blonde always manages to feel like a big, dumb brute next to her. So Catra finding her physically appealing strikes her as literally impossible. 

“Re-really?”

“Duh. Have you even  _ seen _ yourself? We’re both fucking hot.” Catra rolls her eyes with a half-smirk.

“But Glimmer-”

“I don’t think someone I went on  _ three _ dates with before she found her true love gives a shit if we find each other attractive.”

That’s a good point. Adora relaxes into the couch and lets that sink in. 

Okay. Catra thinks she’s cute. That’s good...right? She told Catra about her crush – well, she copped out and said it was just an  _ attraction _ , but she came clean anyway. And Catra is attracted to her. 

Is that all? It took Adora 3 months of constantly hanging out to sort out those feelings so she hopes that’s all. 

She looks up from her thoughts and catches Catra staring at her, eyes searching.

“What?”

Catra seems nervous, which is strange because Adora’s the one here being weird. 

“Is there...anything else you want to tell me? Or ask me maybe?”

Adora shakes her head. This is too much. She starts to reach for her finance reports, something familiar and comforting.

Catra sighs and leans back into the couch, looking uncertain. 

“Okay.” She looks away for a moment then takes a deep breath. More collected now, she tells Adora, “Okay, well, let me know if that ever changes.”

Changes how? 

“Like…?” Adora isn’t sure if Catra’s thinking what she thinks she’s thinking. Adora is aware that she’s also no longer making sense. “...okay.”

“Okay,” Catra repeats before wincing. She mutters facetiously, “We’ve got 16 years of post-secondary education between the two of us and we can’t come up with another word.”

Adora laughs awkwardly. She is not embarrassed necessarily and she is certainly not calm by any measure, but she’s some place in between that is not normal and she doesn't know how to begin to identify it.

Catra, as always, senses her discomfort. A tail brushes against her forearm gently, the soft stroke helping to ease some tension. 

“It’s alright, Dor. This doesn't have to change anything. Unless you want it to.”

“Cool.” She leans her arm closer to Catra, encouraging her tail to keep petting her. 

“Cool.” Catra repeats. Her voice sounds tinny.

But Adora shoots her an anxious grin and Catra gives her a slow, reassuring smile.

“Now that that's settled, do you want to start a true crime podcast about lesbians getting catfished with me?”

“Cat, I don't understand most of those words.”

“Okay, finish those boring reports cause I have hours of horror stories to read you.”

Later, cleaning up alone after the dinner that Catra commandeered when she was displeased with the lack of flavor layering, Adora takes some time to just breath. She doesn’t want to overthink the conversation but she indulges herself in wondering if she could be okay with things not changing between them. 

Also, all the internet romance stories Catra had read to her made dating anyone else seem like a nightmare, which Adora allows herself to think that maybe her crush did on purpose.

* * *

"What do you think she meant?" Adora asks. 

She knows that she sounds like Glimmer a couple months ago. She doesn’t care – this is serious and she needs help.

Glimmer smirks. “Why does that sound so familiar? I seem to remember someone reminding me that Catra is pretty straightforward.”

Adora scowls. This isn’t the answer she wanted. Though at this point, she’s spent so much time with Catra that if anyone knows how to unlock any secret meaning in her words, it’s Adora.

“Is there anything you want to ask me? Let me know if that changes,” she repeats Catra’s words yet again. “That could mean anything, right?”

She gets a frustrated sigh in response.

“Are the two of you having fun?” Glimmer asks instead. For a simple question, it feels weirdly loaded. 

Adora nods and then pretends to focus on petting Melog.

“You were cute at the gala,” she continues in the same leading voice.

Adora swerves out of convo by directing Glimmer's attention back to their surroundings. “That would look great on you.”

Her best friend clearly doesn’t want to drop this but can’t resist the siren song of a cute shirt. They're in Catra's closet cause Adora went in to say hello to Melog and Glimmer followed to peek around. She gave some excuse about looking for the bathroom but didn’t even invest enough effort to finish her own lie.

Adora found Melog lounging on the huge bed and rolling around cutely. The cat jumped into Adora's arms to burrow as soon as they entered, while Glimmer made a beeline towards the clothes. 

She's focusing on a whole section that appears to be slinky tops for going out and skirts that look like they're barely made of enough material. Adora's never seen Catra in anything like this. Does she...is this an  _ option _ ?

“Are you two snooping?” Catra's raspy voice asks, cutting into Adora's rapidly devolving thoughts.

She jumps a tiny bit, startled. Melog cuddles in closer, seemingly wanting to comfort their new best friend. Catra notices and makes a sound that's a half-trill, half-growl. In response, Melog narrows their eyes and just clings more to Adora.

“Are you two in a fight?” she asks, looking back and forth from the cat to their owner.

“Don't be ridiculous,” Catra says quickly, in a way that tells Adora that they definitely  _ are _ .

“Cats are territorial,” Glimmer interjects casually. Before Catra can say anything, she moves on. “I didn't realize you were a shopaholic. I mean, I should have guessed, but do you ever even  _ wear _ most of this?”

“It's aspirational. One day, a handsome woman will offer to take me out and I'll have an excuse to put on something besides work clothes or sweats.”

“Hopefully  _ soon _ ,” Glimmer mumbles.

Catra shoots her a look that's uncharacteristically bashful, ears lowered against her head, even while her eyes scream bloody murder.

They're interrupted by Bow yelling, “Time for icing!” from the kitchen.

“Don't steal anything,” Catra warns before leaving. “I've catalogued every single item.”

“She hasn't worn half the shit in here,” Glimmer whispers. “How many shirts do you think I could hide in my purse?”

Adora immediately exits, not wanting to be implicated in whatever theft is about to occur. Glimmer tries to follow her quickly, failing to hide the sparkly shirt hanging out of her pocket.

“Put that back,” Adora hisses.

“Why did you invite us here if it wasn’t to pad my wardrobe?”

“You said you all wanted to be better friends!”

Glimmer rolls her eyes. “If you have a question about Catra, you have to just  _ ask  _ her. Bow and I are no help. I want to steal everything in here and Bow’s trying to figure out if he can move in and live in that kitchen. I saw him looking up squatter’s rights when Catra turned her back earlier.”

“Oh, suddenly you’re all about direct communication?!”

“You’re the worst whisperers in the history of Etheria,” Catra calls from the kitchen.

Adora glances over to see her staring at them intently while Bow ices cookies like a professional pastry chef.

“What are you even talking about?” she continues.

“Adora has a question she’d like to ask you,” Glimmer offers.

Before Adora can point out all the smuggled shirts on her person, Catra responds, “Yes, Dor?”

Nothing. Absolutely nothing comes to mind. Not a single lie, not even a fake question that she could play off. She looks to Glimmer for help.

That was always going to be a grave mistake. 

“How hot would someone have to be for you to let them spit in your mouth?” Glimmer asks casually.

Catra looks at her with pure shock and confusion written across her face. Then she slowly glances over to Adora with a raised eyebrow.

The blonde’s mouth opens in horror, her head shaking back and forth dumbly.

Catra saves her from further embarrassment by turning back to Glimmer. “Can you join us in the kitchen for a quick meeting?”

The purple-haired menace is pretty proud of herself when she strolls in, but at least she tucks the shirt a bit further out of sight.

Whispered shouting with a bit of hissing starts floating out of the kitchen. Even Bow joins in. ‘Fuck is wrong with you’ and ‘have any chill’ are the only phrases Adora can make out clearly.

She looks down at Melog with their sweet face nestled in the crook of her shoulder.

“You’re my only true friend.”

“Stop trying to steal my cat and get in here. Your gross healthy snacks are finally cool enough for you to try.”

The kitchen doesn’t seem like a very safe place, mostly cause the whisper-fighting has barely died down to a quiet lull. But the cookies smell too good to pass up and Catra made a batch specifically for Adora. A healthier alternative to the chocolate abomination that they’re all excited about, an oat cookie with cranberries, sunflower seeds, and cinnamon. It's delicious and wholesome and the cookie of Adora’s dreams.

Melog is reluctant to get down and let Adora free her hands, though. For a creature that’s usually half-conscious, they’re surprisingly aware of when they’re about to be abandoned and they dig their claws deeper into Adora’s shirt every time she tries to deposit them. She ends up having to carry them with her to the other room.

“Any advice on extracting myself from Melog?”

Catra finishes setting out way too many cookies for 4 people. They look like they were professionally baked.

“Everyone knows you don’t pick up a cat unless you don’t have anywhere to be for the next few hours,” Catra replies. “Come here.”

Adora moves closer, expecting to have the kitten taken away.

Instead, Catra orders, “Open your mouth.”

Adora flusters. She doesn’t want to kink-shame or anything but she’s never...and in front of her friends?! And also,  _ what _ ?! The context is all wrong!

She manages to stutter out, "L-l-look. What Glimmer said... _ I _ would neve-...I mean...if-if  _ you _ -"

"For a cookie," Catra adds firmly. "Really starting to regret inviting you all over."

"Too late," Glimmer tells her. "We know where you live now. We'll be here all the time."

Adora wonders how long it'll be until Glimmer weasels her way into a key.

Still apprehensive, the blonde opens and Catra shoves half of a cookie inside. Catra impatiently waits for her reaction, staring intensely. It's heaven. The flavor, the softness, everything is perfect and Adora gets all warm inside knowing that Catra made it just for her, even though she herself will never touch ‘that healthy hippie nonsense’ as she calls it.

Appeased, Catra joins the other two in having dark chocolate cookies topped with a chocolate ganache and sprinkles (clearly Bow’s doing). Just looking at it gives Adora a toothache.

They’re all moaning and groaning about how good it is. Fakers. Adora will not be tempted.

“Just one bite,” Glimmer urges.

“I don’t like my sweets too sweet!”

“It’s balanced,” Bow argues, defending his recipe.

“Open,” Catra orders again. 

Adora parts her lips just a tiny fraction but that’s enough for Catra to push a quarter of the baked good inside. That strategy was a mistake because she ends up with frosting all over her mouth.

It’s so good. Better than it should be really, and Adora has to fight to not instinctively compare it to the other batch, which now feels bland and one-dimensional in her memory. She doesn’t even like chocolate that much.

Against her will, a groaned “fuck” comes out of her mouth that makes Catra straighten up while her tail starts weaving with interest. Adora tries to look away quickly, since she’s licking around her own mouth like a goober and that could come off as...suggestive.

There’s enough mixed signals. They don’t need any more.

“Missed a spot,” Catra says, voice sounding just a little huskier than usual.

Catra reaches over and gently wipes her thumb across the edge of Adora’s upper lip. Before sucking it into her own mouth. Without breaking eye contact with Adora. Fucking hell.

While she’s sure her voice is two octaves too high, Adora does manage to say, “I better go wash up,” before fleeing from the room and the butterflies in her stomach and, likely, her dignity.

“Well, it was nice to know Adora. RIP,” Glimmer laughs behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like a real party, i was excited to buy new clothes and get ready and then lost interest in being at the actual party very quickly.
> 
> chapter 7 preview! emotional roller coasters and also actual roller coasters.


	7. Two Stray, Feral Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra meets another cat and thinks ketchup doesn't belong on hot dogs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, i finished my other fic, [wicked games](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27967145/chapters/68497250), yesterday so i'm moving forward with updating this fic twice per week. expect tuesday AND friday posting from now on. this is a good week to start cause chapters 7 and 8 have a similar vibe and then 9 and 10 come in next week and kick adora right in the knees.
> 
> also, yesterday's wicked games and today's chapter introduce a very similar character...
> 
> warning - if reading about someone else's amusement park-induced anxiety causes you anxiety, then maybe skip from the entrance to the park down to "photo?".

Adora has a 9-step plan now. She’s going to try to sort out how she feels about Catra, she’s going to try to pay really good attention to how Catra feels about her, she’s going to maybe ask Perfuma’s thoughts, and then the other 6 steps are just random fantasies she has about Catra falling for her. The 9th step is Catra, hopefully, confessing her feelings for Adora cause the blonde's sure that she wouldn't be able to take the leap first.

Adora doesn't want to tell Glimmer about the plan but feels obliged to give her some kind of a heads up.

“I..uh, I'm trying to figure some stuff out,” she announces while they’re eating lunch together.

Glimmer barely looks up from her sandwich. “Like what? Wardrobe update? How to ask for help? Better coping mechanisms?”

“...why did you have that list ready?”

“I think I'd make a really good life coach,” she explains with a shrug.

Well, that's frightening. Glimmer Moon yelling at people about what's wrong with them comes to mind. Though, at least she'd be getting paid for it, instead of doing it with no consent or compensation like now.

“With Catra, I mean.”

“Oh! Great!” Glimmer smiles and puts down her food to fully focus.

“You're fine with that?” Adora asks with some surprise.

“I'm your best friend. Of course I'm fine with that.”

“And if anything ever happened...?”

“Please Gods, can something happen?” she throws her hands up in the air in exasperation. “I'm about two seconds away from abandoning you two together in the woods to get you to actually talk about your feelings.”

It's pretty unclear why that's the strategy. But that's classic Glimmer.

“Catra and I are fine. We talk plenty. We've established a friendship that exists outside of this embarrassing dance that you two are destined to do forever. If you don't want to make a move, you're gonna have to find a better excuse than my feelings.”

“I’m not looking for excuses!” Adora argues.

“Well, they're certainly not looking for you so. Get. It. Together. Girl.” 

So fine. Adora mostly got the greenlight to move ahead with her plan. She was tempted to use the project management app that Catra made her download to capture all the steps but realized that the feline was very likely to open the app without notice just to make sure Adora was following her advice so that wasn’t safe. 

As part of the plan, Adora decided to try to take Catra to do more things that she enjoyed so Adora could see more of Catra’s life and figure out if they made sense together. She could imagine Glimmer telling her that she was overthinking this. She did not care.

Also, she was pretty interested in trying to do something for Catra, who spent so much time supporting Adora. It would be nice to take care of her for a change. 

Unfortunately, encouraging Catra to pick more things for them to do was frightening. The woman’s idea of fun –  _ real _ fun, she’d say with a wicked twinkle in her eye – was always way out of Adora’s comfort zone. Go to that weird bar that gives you a bat and lets you smash tv screens. Eat edibles and go to the aquarium. A nighttime tour of an abandoned train tunnel.

“You know I didn’t grow up classy,” Catra shrugged. “You shouldn’t be surprised by this.”

“You’re literally trying to take me to the wrong side of the tracks though.”

Catra vowed to keep trying. Adora was afraid of that.

After a couple days, she came up with the perfect idea (her words) and wouldn’t let Adora out of it. Mostly, because she told all of the staff at LAP who let it leak to the kids. Catra had a client who owned the largest, and most dangerous, in Adora’s opinion, amusement park in the city. Apparently, he was so wrapped around her finger that when she asked for free tickets for 50 kids in foster and group homes, he had them sent over along with food vouchers and arcade credits and passes to skip the lines.

The amusement park. She couldn’t use work as an excuse to get out of it. Catra made it clear that it could only happen if she and Adora went, though she suspected that the woman wouldn’t  _ actually _ back out of it if she herself did.

If Adora wasn’t so shocked, she would have been impressed at being harangued into this.

“You can’t say no,” Catra reminded her with a fang-filled smirk. “Everyone’s  _ soooo _ excited.”

As expected, once Glimmer and Bow were involved, they gave Catra lots of ‘helpful’ ideas of how to coordinate this more easily and suddenly she had volunteers for transportation and supervision. And shirts. Catra got  _ shirts _ made for Gods’ sake.

So there Adora stood on a Saturday morning in early spring, wearing a silly navy blue tshirt with LAP’s logo, pretending to smile and be excited as she greeted the kids while they entered the park. Catra was ‘supervising’ Mermista, who had a clipboard and was actually doing all the work to make sure everyone had a buddy and all of their necessary accompaniments. 

She felt a bit bad for Mermista but she also knew that on top of a salary that was likely higher than Adora’s, Catra absolutely spoiled the woman with free meals and clothes and all sorts of treats to make up for all the silly tasks she had to do. And once everything was settled, Mermista would be able to hang out and have fun too. She even got to bring her boyfriend. Adora thought he said his name was ‘Sea Hawk’ but she was certain that she misheard.

The kids all seem fucking thrilled.

“This isn’t leadership development,” Adora mumbles through her forced smile.

Hands land on her hips from behind. “It’s socialization,” Catra murmurs in her ear.

“Someone could die, Catra.”

She just laughs in response. “If anything, the rides are extra safe today. Injuring a bunch of orphans would be terrible for business.” That’s not comforting at all.

She turns Adora around to face her. If possible, since Adora’s confession, Catra’s been even more in her personal space. It’s both hot and confusing.

Catra also wears a tshirt, which looks out of place on her. It’s probably two sizes too small and tied at the waist. Adora can’t even look at it straight on and remember her own name. Thankfully, it’s mostly hidden under an oversized dark gray cardigan and a thin midnight blue denim jacket that matches her tight low-rise jeans. Adora didn’t realize they could be  _ stylish _ or anything so she just threw on sweats and a hoodie.

She can’t even fucking get  _ started _ on Bow and Glimmer who both cropped and bedazzled their shirts and managed to make a whole outfit happen. She refuses to stand near them, not wanting Catra to compare her to the two of them. At least Scorpia and Perfuma have the decency to dress like regular people forced to wake up early on the weekend.

Once most everyone is inside and settled, Catra tries to grab her hand and lead her away.

“I’m waiting on my buddy,” Adora argues.

“ _ I’m _ your buddy, dummy.”

“No, I mean one of the youth.”

“Nope. Too many volunteers. Guess you’re stuck with me.” She leans in so close that Adora gulps audibly. That just makes Catra smile and lean in closer.

“Miss Adora, is it too late?” a tiny voice asks, out of breath.

She turns to see one of the younger kids rushing up to her. They left the door on the van wide open and the driver has to get out with a grumble to close it. They don’t even look back for a second.

“Finn, no running today please,” Adora admonishes. “It’s not too late though. What happened? Did you oversleep?”

“No time to tell you!” they yell. 

They grab her hand and try to lead her into the park, much like Catra had done. She turns back to her friend to triumphantly show that she has found a buddy after all. Only to find Catra looking oddly at Finn.

Oh, right. Adora had wanted to find a good time to do this, ever since she saw the young cat in one of their courses. They were only around 7 but whip-smart. Small, kinda like Catra, and had very similar coloring, if only a slight shade lighter. Their hair was more of a blonde wavy mop though with a bushy blonde tail to match.

Catra had mentioned before that she hadn’t really ever known another cat person. A wolf, a fox, various other reptiles. Adora really wanted to warn her before she ever saw Finn.

Finn glances back when they realize she isn’t moving. Adora tries to reach a calming hand out to Catra. But Finn nearly shrieks when they see her, which makes Catra hiss. So now Adora’s standing between two literal stray, feral cats.

“What’s your problem, kid?” Catra asks. It’s not hard but maybe a bit colder than Adora would speak to a child. 

Finn’s ears flatten against their head. 

“Sorry!” Catra mumbles quickly. “I didn’t mean that. What’s your name?”

“Finn,” they say quietly. “My pronouns are they and them.”

Catra smiles, a little amused and surprised. Adora’s never seen her smile this softly before. She wants to hug her but thinks she should probably let this play out.

“I’m Catra. She/her.”

Finn looks amazed. “Your name is Cat?”

“- _ tra _ ,” she emphasizes, but Adora knows from experience that Finn’s going to do whatever they want. This likely includes calling her Cat for the rest of the day.

They walk up to Catra slowly, assessing her tail, her claws. They get on their tiptoes to try and look up at her eyes and ears. 

“Woah,” they whisper. “You have cool eyes.”

“Uh, thanks?” Catra glances at Adora like she doesn’t know what to do next. Adora shrugs in response. “I like your...hair. Your tail’s pretty cool too.”

Finn brightens up considerably. “Thanks,” they chirp. “Can you take me inside now?” 

Still holding Adora’s hand, they reach for Catra’s.

“Sure?” 

She slowly lets this hand-holding happen. It occurs to Adora that Catra’s never really interacted this much with any of the LAP youth.

“Finn can be our third buddy,” Adora says in a voice that she hopes is reassuring. “It’ll be fun.” 

They’re tiny. They’ll be a good excuse not to go on any of the most terrifying rides.

“Oh, no!” she hears Bow shout. “Finn’s  _ my _ favorite. I already signed up to be their buddy.”

When Adora looks up, Bow and Glimmer are giving Catra a very intense look, like the three of them are all in on a secret. Finn frowns and looks back at Catra for confirmation.

“Yeah, Finn, we thought you were our favorite too,” Glimmer says in a fake sad voice that would only fool a child.

“It’s okay, buddy,” Catra tells them. “Bow and Glimmer are a lot more fun than Miss Adora, right?”

Reluctantly, they nod. Catra has to stifle her laugh.

“But we can go on a ride together,” Finn replies, hopeful.

“Yeah, I’ll find you and hang out,” Catra says. “Promise.” 

She means it, it seems. This is somehow making her impossibly more attractive to Adora.

Finn agrees to those terms and lets go of their hands to move towards Bow and Glimmer. Before they head in together, Finn stops and looks back at Catra.

“What’s your favorite thing here?” they call out. “I-I’ve never been.”

“There’s some go-karts and I think I finally figured out how to break them and make them go twice as fast.” The excited gleam in her eyes matches Finn’s exactly. “I’ll show you how to do it.”

“No, she won’t,” Adora yells.

‘Yes, I will,’ Catra mouths to Finn and they skip into the entrance, dragging their new chaperones with them.

With no children to look after, Adora’s forced to follow Catra into the park. It’s pandemonium, like she imagined, all screaming and speeding rides. She thinks Catra will remember her reluctance to do this and start with something easy.

Catra leads them directly to the biggest rollercoaster there, a monstrosity so tall that Adora can’t see the peak once they’re up close to it. Besides the drop, there’s loops and twists to boot. She can’t possibly be serious about this.

“Oh, I totally am,” Catra tells her. Adora was so panicked, she didn’t realize inside thoughts were audible.

“I can’t do this.”

“You have to,” she nods sagely. “Trust me, Dor, it’s easier if you do the biggest one first. All of the other ones are a piece of cake after that. Plus, you want to ride it before lunch or else you’ll puke as soon as you step off.”

The rest of her protests go unheard. Catra isn’t interested in the statistics of how many people are injured each year in amusement parks. She perks up at some of the horror stories of what happens to them, but assures Adora that she’ll research that on her own later. When Adora decides that the best way to avoid this is just to stop moving, Catra wraps both of her arms around Adora from behind and uses the blonde’s ensuing mental shutdown to maneuver her into the line. Because of their dumb express passes, they don’t even have to wait to get on.

“It’ll be fine,” Catra assures her, strapping them both in.

“Oh, hey, guys!” she hears behind them. Two rows back are Scorpia and Perfuma, waving wildly. So Adora will have witnesses to her death.

Catra waves back but Adora can only manage a grimace. She must already be starting to look a little green cause their excitement immediately changes to concern.

“She’s fine,” Catra pipes up. “Tell her the ride is safe.”

“Oh, totally, buddy,” Scorpia agrees. “Safe as houses. Wow, that’s a random saying. Entrapta looked it up for us last time. The history of injury, not the saying. Anyway, it’s incredibly safe.”

“Yes, Adora,” Perfuma agrees. “Catra also forced me to ride it last summer and it was quite safe.” She pauses. “I  _ was _ sick after…”

“I told you not to eat that veggie burger before!” Catra defends. She turns back to Adora, “You’ll be fine, princess.”

Adora begins looking for the exit immediately. But it’s too late. She hears a metallic click and they’re locked in. Sheer panic rises in her throat.

Catra loops their arms and takes Adora’s hand. If she wasn’t sure that this will increase their chances of horrible injury, Adora would be elated about this contact.

Then, Catra leans over so close that her lips practically touch Adora’s ear. 

“You have to let go and relax,” she whispers.

“That’s really not my thing,” Adora groans.

“It’s gonna be really uncomfortable if you try to fight. Trust me. Don’t try to brace yourself, just let your body go with the movement of the ride.”

“I can’t do that.”

And even though they're on a death trap, Catra lays her head on Adora’s shoulder. Like they’re just sitting on the couch to watch a movie. Against her will, Adora practically melts.

The ride chooses that moment to begin.

The ascent isn’t awful but the anticipation starts to get to her in the 20 seconds it takes to go up. Catra nuzzles her neck until the grip on the feline’s hand softens a bit.

“Close your eyes,” Catra whispers in a voice so low that it gives Adora goosebumps. She does as told. “Don’t open them til I squeeze your hand again, okay?” 

Adora nods, mostly still lost in the feeling.

The ride stills for about a second. Before she can brace herself for falling, Catra raises their adjoined hands in the air. And then everything drops from underneath Adora. She hears Catra maniacally cackle and tries to focus on that sound instead of the sensation of being thrown out of an airplane. The hand in hers begins squeezing frantically and Adora opens her eyes to see that they’re only about 6 feet from the ground now. Catra keeps their arms in the air and nuzzles into Adora’s neck again.

There’s a loop-de-loop. A twist that turns them upside down for a few moments. The whole thing really happens so fast and Catra’s so distracting that Adora manages to find it extremely thrilling. It’s over before she knows it.

At the end, Catra turns to her with the broadest smile. 

“Fucking amazing, right?”

Adora can feel how red her face is, how she still hasn't fully caught her breath. The restraints unlock and Catra has to pull her out cause she’s a little wobbly. Once they’re by the exit, Adora can’t help herself – full of adrenaline, she whirls Catra around to face her and grabs both of her biceps to keep her in place.

“I didn’t die,” Adora whispers frantically. She thinks she might be smiling. “That was  _ terrifying _ .”

Catra’s still laughing. She pulls Adora closer by the collar of her hoodie unless the two of them are pressed together.

“Were you truly alive before it?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Adora chuckles. “But yeah, that was something.”

“Don’t worry – we’ve got plenty of more to ride. Now, come on, I want to see how embarrassing you look in the photo.”

“Photo?”

Adora didn’t realize this was a thing – commemorative pictures from the ride. She looks terrible in the photo, like she’s just been frightened by a ghost. Apparently Catra knew exactly where the camera was because she’s smiling and flipping it off with the hand that’s not in Adora’s, face still nuzzled in the blonde’s neck. 

The silly souvenir photos are ridiculously expensive but Catra tries to buy one anyway. It takes Scorpia and Perfuma to convince her not to, preserving some of Adora’s dignity. They of course look very cute and precious in their picture.

Catra drags them all to the next ride, a slightly less intimidating coaster. It continues like this until lunch, since she seems to have the whole park memorized and all of her favorite things flagged. Adora must admit that the rides themselves get less terrifying but the intimate contact with Catra does not.

Scorpia and Perfuma break from them to go on some cheesy water ride that Catra refuses to try. They catch sight of Bow and Glimmer heading to the food court with Finn. Catra is surprisingly excited about this.

“You eat here?” Adora asks, puzzled. Catra enjoys a good meal like no one she’s ever met before.

“The food is awful but it’s all the shit I never got to have as a kid so I’m going to eat until I puke,” she replies.

High off the good time, Adora decides to try her hand at flirting a little. “That’s a shame. You look so cute in this outfit.”

Catra stops and turns to her, pulling her close by her hoodie again. She smiles slowly, almost seductively. 

“You get to hold back my hair, you lucky girl,” Catra whispers. 

Thank the Gods she’s basically holding Adora steady right now, cause the blonde nearly swoons at the tone, completely ignoring Catra’s actual  _ words _ . And then the feline cackles and runs up to the counter. She doesn’t even ask if Adora wants anything.

Adora moves over towards her two other friends. They had been heading to order when they stopped for Adora and Catra. Now they just stand there and look at her amused.

“Finn,” Glimmer begins, “why don’t you wait in line with Catra? She’ll get you literally anything you want.”

They end up getting down on all fours just to sprint faster towards her. There will now be  _ two _ vomiting cats, Adora imagines. Bow and Glimmer, meanwhile, lead her to a table. It’s unclear why they look so mischievous.

“Sooooo,” Bow starts and Adora now finally understands what’s happening. “Are you two having a cute day?”

Adora refuses to react the way they clearly want her to, all bumbling embarrassment and rosy cheeks. 

Instead, she shrugs casually, “It’s more fun than I expected.”

“Catra’s great,” Bow offers, voice sounding very  _ leading _ .

“Yeah,” Adora nods. “We have fun. It’s pretty amazing that she did all this for the kids and she was a  _ dream _ with the gala.”

“She’s a good egg,” Glimmer adds. “She damn near worships you and she treats you well.” 

Adora can tell that they’re ramping up to give her advice about Catra. Since they got together, the two of them have convinced themselves that they’re relationship experts. If Adora has to hear them talk about how ‘it’s okay to be afraid to make a move if you don’t know how the other person feels but it’s so worth it, blah blah’, she’s going to gag them.

Oddly, instead, Bow says, “I’m really happy for you two.”

“Yeah, it’s about time that this happened,” Glimmer agrees.

When realization hits Adora, she chokes on literally nothing. 

“ _ What?! _ ” 

She turns around to make sure Catra’s too far away to pick it up with her sensitive hearing. She’s still in line, chatting away with Finn, ears facing forward. 

Lower, Adora clarifies, speaking way too quickly, “Do you think we’re dating? We’re not dating.”

Glimmer and Bow exchange a strained look with each other. Bow seems to lose the silent argument.

He begins by clearing his throat. “Adora,” he dramatically pauses to make sure he has her full attention. “You took her as your date to a formal event. Wearing matching outfits. That she purchased for you. You told her you liked her. Then you told her to pick a date where you can do something she likes.”

“You’re dating,” Glimmer summarizes.

“No,” Adora is proud that her voice comes out calmly. Because inside, she feels like she might pass out. “She came as my  _ date _ , not necessarily  _ on _ a date. I told her that I was  _ attracted _ to her, not that I was... _ interested _ . And this was supposed to be a friendly outing for me to gather more information. Plus, it’s not really a date if both of you and everyone from work is here.”

They’re about to protest when she continues, “Honestly, I’m not really even sure why we’re  _ friends _ . It’s not like I have anything to offer Catra. She’s amazing and funny and well-connected and successful. And  _ gorgeous _ . She’ssofuckinggorgeous.” She says the last part almost breathless.

Glimmer jumps in before she can sound like a total creep. “Adora, you’re a great friend. From what I’ve learned about Catra, she's been alone a lot. She has plenty of folks in her orbit, but she doesn’t let people in easily. After Scorpia, you’re probably closest to her right now. You’re steady and solid and a lot of people need that. And sure, she’s got a nice life but you’re no slouch either – you’re doing something important in the world.”

Bow jumps in to add, “You’re beautiful and you’re thoughtful. You've got the hugest heart and everyone loves you. Catra would be lucky to have you.”

Only some of those things feel true about Adora. She is indeed steady and solid. Boring. 

“Catra likes exciting things. I’m not fun. I’m not, like, an entertaining, cool person like you, Glimmer. You’re the last person she dated.”

“Look, I never really wanted to tell you this, but I'm pretty sure I was her second choice the night we all met. Honestly, it was truly an honor just to be nominated.” She says the last part while glancing over at Catra’s figure.

Adora looks over at Bow, expecting him to be at least a tad jealous, but he’s doing the same. Fair. Catra is very attractive.

“You can’t possibly mean she was into me,” Adora protests.

“She asked you to get drinks that night,” Glimmer reminds her. “And pretty much right before each one of our dates. In hindsight, it was probably a red flag that I was never jealous.”

Bow confidently smirks, just a little.

“It’s not like tha-” Adora stops when she hears Finn’s voice, babbling all kinds of questions about the food.

“No, you don’t get to put ketchup on your corn dog,” Catra replies.

“But it’s my favorite,” Finn tells her with a smile.

“You’re incorrect,” she says, as if that should win the argument.

“I’m gonna do it,” they respond. “I’ll let you try it if you’re nicer.”

“I just bought you 20 pounds of junk. I’m practically a saint.”

“And you’re taking me to the go-karts,” Finn agrees.

Catra drops the overflowing tray of gross greasy amusement park food on the table and whips around to Finn. She crouches down so they're closer to eye-level.

“Listen to me,” she says firmly but in a kind voice. “Remember. Never negotiate against yourself. If you’re trying to get something from someone, don’t agree with them. You’re ruining your own argument. Do you know what you should have told me instead?”

Finn thinks for a moment. “About all the stuff you didn’t let me buy?”

“Exactly!”

They high five. Yes, Bow coos and Adora nearly cries.

Catra sits next to Adora, with Finn on her other side. Without another word, they dig in. Finn puts ketchup on their corndog, much to Catra’s disgust.

“What did you two talk about in line?” Adora asks.

“Cat’s teaching me to become a lawyer,” Finn replies with a mouth full of food.

“It seemed like a good idea after they asked me how to hotwire a car,” Catra adds, mouth also full. When she swallows, she whispers to Adora, “Kid’s fucking hilarious.”

“Cat’s gonna buy me a suit,” they announce.

Catra tries to shove a fry into Adora’s mouth against her will. 

“That was mostly a joke about their court date after they steal that car. I gave them my card just in case though.”

Somehow, Bow and Glimmer are lucky enough to get a reasonable amount of food. Adora tries to pick out whatever is healthiest but that’s a losing battle. 

She’s still worried about Catra and Finn getting sick so she convinces all of them to do the low-risk attractions, the haunted house, some 3-D shooting thing, and a couple arcade games. As cliched as it is, she still tries to win a prize for Catra who mocks her so mercilessly for being such a sap that Adora completely fucks up and loses. Finn insists on Catra giving them a pickeyback ride to the next game and the cuteness of that sight more than makes up for Adora’s disappointment.

Together, the two cats move around at light-speed, with everyone else struggling to keep up. Spotting another terrorizing coaster, they both run up to it. When Adora reaches them, they have matching disappointed frowns.

“Kid’s too short to ride,” Catra huffs. She doesn’t even offer to go without them.

“Ferris wheel?” Bow suggests.

Catra doesn’t look convinced. She glances at Finn, who doesn't seem to know what it is though. 

“It’s kinda scary at the top,” she explains to them. “Really high up.”

“Let’s go!” and they rush off. 

When the others get there, Adora’s surprised that Catra and Finn are patiently waiting, instead of just jumping on. Finn takes Bow and Glimmer’s hands and leads them to the entrance. It’s not until Adora and Catra watch them get into their car that she sees the look that Finn’s giving the older cat. Right before the bar comes down, they wink and give her a thumbs up.

“More subtle, kid,” Catra whispers. With their ears, Finn picks it up clearly and drops their hand.

Adora tries not to mention it. How close Catra sits next to her in the car is a good distraction to panic about instead. The woman is  _ plastered _ to her side. When Adora raises an eyebrow, Catra shrugs.

“I’m scared,” she says, never sounding more confident in her life.

Adora laughs and puts her arm around Catra’s shoulder. In return, she looks a little surprised but purrs very quietly.

“It’s like high school,” Adora remarks.

Catra chuckles at her, “You were the jock who took girls on the ferris wheel?”

“I wish,” she scoffs. “That was my cheesy, embarrassing dream. To have this girl I was crushing on wear my letterman jacket and take her on the ferris wheel and kiss.”

“Why didn’t that happen?”

“I was too busy trying to be valedictorian and play sports and be on student council, etc. She was too straight. Or maybe she just wasn’t into me. I’m still not really sure which.”

“Hmm,” Catra hums. “What was she like?”

“Oh, she was a total badass. The opposite of me. She was a gymnast and she smoked cigarettes behind the school. She had a bellyring and Bow’s fashion sense, weirdly. She always wore a croptop or a shredded shirt with denim cutoffs usually and a leather jacket.”

“Honestly, I’m in love just hearing about her,” Catra replies.

The ride continues on slowly, them coming close to the top.

“What were you like in high school?” Adora asks, very curious. “Wait! Can I guess?” 

She’s sure what she has in mind is either going to be spot-on or Catra’s going to fling her from the car, dozens of feet to the ground.

Catra tilts her head so she can see Adora’s face more fully. 

“You’ll never get it.”

Adora smiles smugly. 

“I know you’re just trying to psych me out. You were super emo in high school. I bet you had really straight bangs but left the rest of your hair all wild. You wore all black. You wrote poems about death.”

“And I will never, ever let you read them,” Catra replies, completely shameless. “Good guess.”

“Was not a guess,” she murmurs. “Did you have a girlfriend?”

Catra laughs in a mirthless way. “I had an online girlfriend who I could only talk to at school cause we didn’t have internet at home. Still don’t know what she actually looked like...or if she was even a teenage girl. I kissed two girls, one on a school trip and one under the bleachers during track practice. I spent the whole time worried Weaver was gonna freak out and skin me alive or something.”

She’s mentioned her foster mother a few times before. Adora’s got enough experience to know that the woman was more than just  _ unpleasant _ but Catra’s never mentioned anything specific enough to confirm that hunch.

Carefully, she says, “You do a lot of stuff now to make up for lost time it sounds like.”

Catra tilts her head to catch Adora’s eyes again. “Maybe I’m nourishing my inner child or something more healthy than what you’re making it sound like.”

“I’m not judging,” she replies quickly. “Just curious.”

Catra shrugs. “Honestly, this is probably too dark for a ferris wheel ride but I didn’t really imagine I’d make it this long.” Adora knows that feeling. “So yeah, I know I’m lucky and privileged to be able to have all the shit I always wanted now – security, food whenever, a place I own, space to just be myself – and I make sure to enjoy it.”

“...you  _ own _ that apartment?!”

Catra just hushes her and tucks further into Adora’s side. 

“You should use your other arm too. I'm really  _ really _ scared.” When Adora wraps her other arm around Catra, she continues, “It’s just stuff. It doesn't matter as much as it used to. The nostalgia is nice though sometimes. Comforting. In my old age, I’m starting to appreciate comfort and calm, for a change.”

Adora just nods in understanding. Catra starts purring and doesn’t stop until they have to get off the ride. Finn’s giving her a thumbs up as they exit.

Catra allows herself to be convinced not to tamper with the go-kart. Adora isn’t sure if she actually does know how to soup up the vehicle but she reasons that it’s better not to try for Finn’s first ride. 

They continue on like that for the rest of the day, she and Catra breaking off sometimes to go their own way or other groups joining for a bit. By the end of the day, Finn has a sugar crash and Adora has to carry them back to the van. Half-asleep and grumpy, they refuse to let go of Catra’s hand the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sure nothing in this chapter will ever come up again...


	8. Just a Hint of Sandalwood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora saves Catra. Twice. The weirdest Saturday morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy friday! this feels like the queerest chapter so far to me. is it the basketball? i don't know but probably.
> 
> all of y'all in the comments: i love adora.  
> also y'all: is she gonna be married to catra with 5 kids and still thinking they're just friends cause jfc adora??!??!  
> a couple of y'all: catra is just as much of a disaster. we need to raise awareness of this.
> 
> i see zero lies anywhere there.
> 
> there's some stuff at the end with prescription drug use which is mostly harmless but it starts after the 2nd vertical line. you can jump from there down to "you have a very rude visitor" if you want to skip it.

Spring meant that more of the rec leagues were starting up again at the local community center. Adora still didn’t have time to consistently join one but she agreed to a game when one of her former teammates, Netossa, insisted that they needed a sub. Just one game, Adora promised.

When she casually mentions it one day, Catra gets maybe a little too excited. She claims it’s about the possibility of watching Adora fall multiple times but that doesn’t seem to be the complete truth. So Adora invites her. This is good. She’s good at basketball kinda and Catra seems to like her muscles so it’s a good excuse to show off. Maybe tease her a bit.

Adora probably should have realized that she’d never be able to one-up Catra. 

The blonde wears the tightest racerback tank she can find, leaving a lot of her upper body on display, and a pair of basketball shorts that are a bit more fit than she’d usually go for. She's stretching when Catra arrives, which at least gives her an excuse for how red she gets in the face.

Catra enters and immediately struts up to her, distracting Adora and most of the other women on the court. She’s in acid-washed cutoff jeans, a vintage band t-shirt that’s cut into a crop top, and a black leather jacket to top it all off. Adora probably won’t remember what her high school crush looked like ever again.

“ _ Hey _ , Adora,” Catra practically purrs.

Adora attempts to stand up from a lunge as coolly as possible. 

“ _ Hey _ , Catra,” she parrots. She makes sure to flex lightly as she steps closer and gets a quiet trill for her efforts. “Nice outfit.” 

It’s the understatement of the century.

“You think so?” Catra smiles. “Wanted to try something new. Got inspired the other day.” 

She does a small twirl to show off the look and Adora's tongue almost falls out of her mouth when she sees how the shorts just barely cover Catra's ass.

The front is no less distracting. There’s a sea of fuzzy midriff that Adora can’t quite take her eyes off of. She wants to buy real estate and live there forever.

“Netossa mentioned we could use one more person,” Adora mumbles absently. “If you’re down. I could probably find you some gym clothes.” 

And then she almost slaps herself in the face for suggesting that Catra should ever change out of this outfit.

“Nevermind. You’re good here,” Adora continues.

“If you say so,” Catra replies. “Honestly, I’d do anything for you, Dor, but I’m not trying to sweat today. Not in  _ public _ , at least.”

Catra smirks and very slowly removes her jacket. The shirt apparently has lost its sleeves and most of the sides, leaving even more fur and a surprisingly dainty-looking black lace bra exposed. 

Adora doesn't even notice when tipoff’s about to start.

Another miscalculation – since Adora’s on the court for most of the game, Catra has a lot of time and space on the opposite benches to be approached by every other woman in the building. Every single time she looks over, someone’s trying to chat the feline up, raking their eyes over her barely-covered body. To her relief, Catra seems to politely shoot down each one. But Adora spends so much time distracted that she gets hit in the head with the ball twice and misses more than a few shots.

“Looking good, Dor!” Catra cheers each time, cackling loudly.

“Get your head in the game, Gray,” Netossa whispers. “Can you and your girl stop eye-fucking? You damn near made  _ Huntara _ blush.” 

When she wasn’t being hit on, Catra had been watching the court closely but Adora wouldn’t say it was quite that...intense.

She plays a bit better after that, thinking it was her last chance to impress Catra. It occurs to her that maybe it was a bit immature to try to use her old moves from high school. And that they didn’t actually work back then either. But Catra  _ did _ wear that outfit, so maybe she's fine indulging Adora a bit here.

At the end of the game, Catra rushes up to her and throws her arms around Adora’s neck, not seeming to mind at all that she’s gross from all the exertion.

“I’m sweaty,” the blonde laughs, only sorta trying to push her away. She pretends not to notice Catra sniffing her and trilling again.

“I've made a terrible mistake,” Catra whispers in her ear. 

Before Adora can question that, she sees Huntara, the giant purple muscle-bound center from the other team coming over towards them.

“Oh, hey, Blondie,” she greets. 

She knows Adora’s name. It’s been shared many times. Adora is pretty sure this is just Huntara’s power move.

Like a reflex, Adora wraps her arms protectively around Catra’s waist. 

She tries to muster up all the confidence she has to ask, “What’s up, Huntara?”

“Just wanted to chat more with the kitty. Didn’t realize she was taken.”

Adora smiles down at the woman in her arms as smugly as possible. She doesn’t even care that Huntara could crush her like a grape.

“Are you taken, Cat?”

Catra just hides her face in Adora’s sweaty neck. A tail swats up near her nose, a clear sign to stop being intentionally difficult. 

Their third wheel grunts impatiently.

The blonde shrugs at Huntara. “Guess so.” When Huntara walks away, Adora can’t hold back her laugh. “Not your type either?”

Catra pulls back to glare at Adora. “What’s with you and that?”

Wanting to steer away from the landmine of all of her insecurities, Adora pivots the attention back to Catra.

“You turned a lot of heads in this outfit,” she jokes.

“Look, I told her I came for someone else but she didn’t care to listen.” She leans a bit closer, pretending to be thinking of something. Catra head's back on Adora’s shoulder when she whispers, entirely too suggestively, “Maybe cause I told her that my plan for tonight was to go home and play with my little pussycat.”

Adora doesn’t even have an appropriate amount of time to be scandalized. With a final pleased trill, Catra has her arm in one hand and is reaching for her gym bag with the other, rushing out to their playdate with Melog.

* * *

**Catra  
** **10:46am  
** I fucking hate this plan  
Are you still on your way?

**Adora  
** **10:52am  
** Well, it was your idea so...  
And yeah. I’m getting dressed.  
What are you wearing?

**Catra  
** **10:53am  
** Right now?  
Just a hint of sandalwood  
;)

**Adora  
** **10:55am  
** Is that a clothing brand?

**Catra  
** **10:59am  
** ...  
Nevermind  
I regret everything

When Adora arrives at the apartment, Catra’s wearing a pale green canvas jumpsuit with the long sleeves and pant legs rolled up. On her feet are cute little off-white high-top canvas sneakers.

“Well, now I definitely don’t get your text,” Adora opens with, shoving her hands in her cozy beat up jeans.

“It’s my cologne,” is all Catra says, avoiding Adora’s eyes. And then she locks her door and heads down the hallway quickly.

Halfway to Catra’s car, Adora finally goes, “ _ Oh! _ ”

“There it is,” comes out in a drawl.

Catra opens the passenger side door for her, like a gentlewoman.

“Why are we going to the farmer’s market all the way in Thaymor? It’s 45 minutes away.”

“Trust me. I’m not any happier about getting up this early on the weekend,” Catra replies, settling into the driver's seat. She starts the car and lowers the windows to let some air in. “It’s not really about the journey. Entrapta’s latest invention exploded or something and she’s bummed. I’m just giving her some quality time with Darla to cheer her up.”

“Who’s-” 

“Darla!” Entrapta’s nasally shriek interrupts.

There’s ringing in Adora’s right ear. Probably because Entrapta’s head is shoved into her window, pigtails hanging loosely across the blonde’s lap. The woman’s eyes are practically  _ frenzied _ , wide and wild as she glances around the console.

Her smile slowly fades as she notices Adora. 

“You’re in my seat,” Entrapta tells her with a sudden deadly calm. 

“Oh. Sorry?”

The social contract we all agree to as vehicle passengers says that whoever gets there first gets to ride up front. From the little she knows about Entrapta, Adora imagines that social contracts are not something she bothers herself with.

The blonde looks at Catra who just rolls her eyes. 

“Trapta. Be nice please.”

“I'm sorry,” she says flatly. “Hello, Adora. It's nice to see you again. Thank you for allowing me to join your date.”

Adora looks to Catra for help again but she's useless. Catra has put on large tortoise shell sunglasses which shouldn't affect her  _ hearing _ . But she seems committed to staring straight ahead and pretending Entrapta hasn’t spoken. With no other options, Adora scurries out and gets in the back. 

Entrapta squeals, “Darla!” and jumps into the passenger seat, where she immediately starts inspecting the car.

With a patient smile, Catra turns around to explain, “Entrapta is ‘close’ to Darla.” She momentarily lowers her sunglasses so that Adora can see her dramatically raise both eyebrows.

Entrapta’s too busy running her finger along the dashboard to notice.

As an engineer or whatever it is Entrapta does, Adora’s pretty sure she makes more than enough money to afford her own Darla. But maybe she’s just taken with this particular car. It seems best not to inquire more closely.

The entire ride is filled with so much rambling about Darla that Catra has to blast music to tune it out.

Adora leans up next to her to whisper, “Why don’t you just let her drive?”

“ _ Drive _ ? I barely trust her to operate a spoon.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Adora sees Entrapta’s hand slowly edging towards the steering wheel, not worried at all that the vehicle is currently in motion.

Mercifully, they make it safely to the farmers’ market, where they meet up with Scorpia and Perfuma. The one in Thaymor is much bigger than their local market, a long, sprawling strip full of people, mostly lots of couples and kids. 

Scorpia gets excited about everything from the grit and ingenuity of the local farmers to the craftsmanship of the folks selling goods. Perfuma buys a few things, some weird looking eggplant and some okra, but is very quiet, which is odd. Catra casually loops her arm through Adora’s and they wander slowly behind the trio, just kinda taking everything in.

Pretty quickly, Entrapta gets distracted by a vendor and runs off without a word, Catra and Scorpia dutifully following behind her quickly.

“It’s nice to see you outside of work,” Perfuma says once they’re alone.

“You too,” Adora agrees. They don’t hang out much anymore, not like buddies.

She and Perfuma had met in college, along with Bow and Glimmer. They’d always been in the same circle of friends but had never been super close. Glimmer had the strange idea that the hippie blonde harbored a bit of a crush on Adora in school. Regardless, she’d always been extremely supportive of Adora and when LAP opened, she jumped at the chance to come on board from the start. It had been challenging for a while, thanks to their very different styles. But Perfuma was a good friend; she and Adora just exist on completely different wavelengths.

“Seems like you’ve been a bit less stressed lately,” Perfuma says.

_ See _ ? Adora would never say anything like that to someone. 

“Yeah, things have been good,” she responds. “I’ve been getting more help with work and spending more time with friends.” Or just one friend.

“I’m so happy to hear that,” Perfuma tells her with a warm smile. “A lot of the tension has really drained out of your shoulders. It’s been lovely to see you a bit more comfortable.”

Perfuma lets it lie for a whole two seconds while they walk in silence.

“If I could suggest just one thing?”

Adora cuts in. “I’m not interested in yoga, meditation, or journaling.” This is a common conversation for them.

“...Generative Somatics? Forward Stance?”

“No!” A pause. “What’s that?”

“Transformative practices.”

“Perfuma,” she groans. “I don’t need transformation. I’m pretty fine the way I am.”

The other woman leads her off to the side, walking between two stands. Adora isn’t sure what’s happening or how she’s the only one behaving normally on this outing.

“Make a fist,” Perfuma instructs. When Adora doesn’t move, she repeats it more firmly.

With a small scowl, Adora holds her right hand between her and Perfuma and balls it into a fist, palm side up. She’s not sure how but this is probably a trick. Maybe she’s just been spending too much time with Catra and Glimmer, though.

“Hold on tight,” is all Perfuma says. Reaching over quickly, she tries using her fingers to pry Adora’s clenched hand open.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re stronger than I realized,” she replies. Her voice sounds all giggly and flustered.

Is this some weird game? This feels like something you’d play with a child. It’s silly but she also desperately doesn’t want to lose.

Adora’s barely begun to put in effort when Perfuma gives up.

“That was hard. When our muscles are closed and clenched, they’re quick to stay that way when they’re met with force.”

Perfuma patiently waits to make sure Adora understands. With a metaphor so on the nose, it would be hard not to.

“Now,” she continues. “Shake it off and make another fist.” 

Adora does as she’s told. Perfuma’s hand gently slides under hers, cradling around it to hold the weight. 

“Let’s try a different approach. We’ll try supporting the fist instead,” Perfuma suggests. 

It goes how Adora suspects, since she’s familiar with Perfuma’s analogies. Smiling kindly at her, Perfuma holds Adora’s hand until she’s tired of keeping it balled into a fist. It only takes a couple minutes and Adora seriously considers practicing this at home until she has the will to prove Perfuma wrong. For now, she reluctantly relaxes her grip.

It’s all very silly. And also, “What is this supposed to mean?”

“Sometimes instead of bracing for impact, we should roll with the momentum of the stressors that come our way.” She begins massaging the tension from Adora’s hand. “We welcome new and different experiences into our lives. We acknowledge the patterns that have protected us in the past, thank them for how they have served us, and let them go.”

It’s a little too woo for her tastes. But it reminds her of Catra and the rollercoaster. Of Catra’s raspy whisper, urging her to relax and let go.

She doesn’t have to imagine Catra’s voice for long. 

“Why are you two hiding back here and holding hands?” Catra asks, appearing suddenly next to them.

“Fucking hell, Catra!” Perfuma screams while dropping jumping in the air. Adora’s never seen her so alarmed.

Catra couldn’t care less. She narrows her eyes suspiciously as Perfuma struggles to slow her breathing.

“You didn’t answer the question.”

“I’m going to catch up to Scorpia and Entrapta,” Perfuma mumbles instead and quickly breezes past Catra with a final reassuring smile.

“Transformative practice,” Adora says with a shrug.

“Oh….did it work?”

“I don’t think it’s immediate, Cat,” Adora says with a laugh.

Catra grabs her hand and uses it to pull her back onto the walking path, returning to strolling through the market.

“Sorry I invited you out for the weirdest Saturday morning ever.”

Awkwardly, Adora says, “Sorry that Entrapta falsely implicated you in dating a mess like me.” 

Catra growls, short and low. She tugs on Adora’s arm, stopping her dead in her tracks. A family with a stroller behind them grumbles their annoyance but Catra’s so zeroed in on Adora that she doesn’t even seem to notice. 

“Well, now you have to say something nice about yourself,” Catra orders. 

Yes,  _ now _ it’s the weirdest Saturday morning.

“What?”

“I let you trash yourself enough. You have to say something nice now.”

“You’re not serious. Cat?” 

“I’m always serious.” 

“You’re never serious.” 

“That’s besides the point!” Catra shoots back quickly.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Perfuma.”

”I’m not the one who was just playing pattycake with her next to the cheese stand,” she says, tilting her head slightly. “Something nice.  _ Go _ .” 

Catra looks like she’s not backing down. She’s so hot when she’s serious. Fine. 

“I’m loyal,” Adora says stiffly. Praising herself isn’t exactly something that she can just do on command. Or otherwise. 

“That’s boring. Something better.” 

The blonde thinks for a second. “I’m really good at solving problems.”

“You are. What else?” 

“You said one thing,” Adora replies, crossing her arms. 

“I didn’t actually. You’re not a very good listener.” 

“I’m a great listener!”

And while there’s no good setting for this absurd conversation, doing it here right now definitely makes them look like a cliched lesbian couple fighting in the middle of a farmers’ market. Adora is mortified.

“See, another nice thing,” Catra continues. “Think you can dig up one more for me?”

Adora scoffs with a smile. “I’m pretty good with my hands?” 

Catra’s stern expression falls. It looks like her brain shuts down a bit, her face going slack and her eyes going to Adora’s arms and hands. 

“I-uh...” Obviously Adora meant that she was good with, like, building Ikea furniture. Not-not anything  _ else _ . But Catra’s almost blushing. Just a little. 

It’s certainly a bit of an ego booster. She tries to give Catra a reassuring smile but it definitely comes out all cocky.

Full of unearned swagger, Adora says, “I mean, yeah, I haven’t gotten any complaints before.” 

Catra looks back to her eyes, clearly intrigued. “Really,  _ princess _ ?” There’s a challenge in her tone. “ _ I’ll _ b-” 

“There you are!” Entrapta squeals, suddenly reappearing. “Catra, the tiny baked goods person crashed their credit card machine and they refuse to let me fix it. Give all of your cash to me.” 

“Entrapta!” she yells, clearly frustrated. 

Her friend doesn’t even blink. “Oh, should I say ‘please’?” 

“No-” 

“Are you sure? I’m fairly certain I should have phrased it as a question.” 

“Fine! Here.” Catra removes all of the cash from her wallet and hands it to Entrapta. It’s way too much money for mini-cupcakes but Entrapta happily takes it and runs away.

Adora’s not sure how to pick up after the interruption. It feels like the moment has passed and whatever confidence she briefly possessed has deflated considerably.

“Uh. Good exercise. Thanks for that.” She keeps her eyes trained on the ground as her hands start to nervously fidget.

“Hey,” Catra says quietly, gently sliding a palm into Adora’s. “I know you don’t believe me, but I see all the ways that you’re amazing. Someone would be really lucky to have you. And I never lie so don’t insult my integrity by trying to deny it.” 

It takes her a moment but eventually Adora just sighs. Everyone’s committed to being supportive today. It’s no use fighting it.

“Well, I don’t want to compromise your integrity. So I’ll just say...thank you.”

“Cool. Now use those muscles for good and help Entrapta carry $200 worth of cupcakes back to the car. I’m afraid of what'll happen if I leave her and Darla unsupervised with that much sugar.”

* * *

**Catra  
** **11:29pm  
** hey  
dor  
can say  
I want to know so much more about yuo

**Adora  
** **11:34pm  
** …  
What’s happening here?  
Are you ok?

**Catra  
** **11:37pm  
** maybe   
some loss of functions

**Adora  
** **11:37pm  
** Are you drunk?

**Catra  
** **11:45pm  
** No   
i seem druk?

Catra picks up on the fourth ring. 

“ _ Heeeeey _ , Adora.” Her speech is a little slurred. She doesn't sound drunk. She certainly doesn't sound sober though. “Miss you.”

That's...not what Adora is expecting to be greeted with. Especially since they’d seen each other less than 48 hours before. And also because it wasn’t one-sided. She shakes that out of her head, now sitting fully upright in her bed, where she’d been responding to low-importance work emails.

“Ar-Are you okay? Where are you?” Adora was trying very hard to keep her voice calm, even if she was pretty worried already.

“‘m home,” Catra returns quietly. Her voice is…’ _ dreamy’ _ is really the only way Adora can think to describe it. Catra mumbles something else that she can’t quite pick up about “separating space and time.”

“Uh,” Adora tries to think of what’s a good investigative question since Catra obviously isn’t in a mood to be more forthcoming. “What did you do tonight?”

There’s some rustling from the other end. 

“Worked late. Ate junk.”

“Did you have some wine?”

“No.” It’s almost like she’d sound exasperated if she had more energy. “No wine.”

“Okay…”

“I’m not supposed to drink with it anyway,” Catra says and there’s more rustling.

That’s odd. 

“Drink with what?”

“What?” she parrots back after a pause, genuinely sounding like she has no idea what they’re talking about.

Adora sighs. It’s late but not horribly late. Catra’s about a 30-minute drive away. Maybe she should just go over and confirm that everything’s okay.

Then a very out-of-nowhere fear strikes her. What if Catra isn’t alone? There’s a lot of rustling and background noise. She definitely seems distracted. It’s completely irrational, yet Adora can’t stamp the feeling down.

“Catra?” she asks tentatively. “I’m gonna come over and make sure you’re okay. Is that alright? Are you by yourself?”

A 'mmrp?' is all she gets in reply. There’s another pause, where Adora is increasingly certain that Catra is pushing some random girl out of her apartment in a rush.

It sounds like Catra drops the phone. And then Adora gets a notification that she wants to switch to a video call. When she answers, Catra’s hilariously holding the device too close to her face, like someone’s mom.

She tries squinting her eyes, her pupils all large and round like a kitten’s. 

“You wanna come over  _ at night _ , Dor?” Catra smirks. 

She kinda reminds Adora of someone trying to tell a dirty joke for the first time. The intent is there but the delivery is fumbled just a little.

In order words, this shouldn’t make Adora flustered, but of course it does. 

“Just to check on you. You’re acting suspicious,” she clarifies quickly.

“ _ You’re _ acting sus,” Catra replies. 

She places the phone down carefully and her gigantic closet becomes visible around her. Adora can see that she appears to just be hanging out in there alone.

“What are you up to?”

Catra glances around, like maybe she doesn’t entirely know. 

“Getting rid of some clothes. You want some?”

Adora laughs, though she’s still very very confused. “We’re not at all the same size, Cat. What aren’t you supposed to drink with?”

“...what?” She pulls a chunky gold sweater over her head, smooths it down for a second, and removes it quickly. This apparently gives her a second to catch up to the question cause she responds dismissively, “Oh, my sleeping pill. It’s fine. No drinks. Nothing happened though. Still awake.”

That actually explains a lot. Adora looks at her face a little closer. She does seem more zombie-like than usual. It’s probably one of those prescriptions where people end up sleep-walking into their kitchen and eating random food in the middle of the night or something.

Catra angles the phone a bit more, presumably on one of the many, many shelves in her huge closet and then wanders further into her wardrobe. Unfortunately, this gives Adora a full-body view of the oblivious woman.

That sweater had been the only thing she was wearing.

She’s now looking at Catra’s fully naked profile. It’s only a weird back/side angle at least but that is  _ plenty _ . Adora can clearly make out how the stripes on Catra’s arms also show up on her ribs. The definition in her shoulders. Basically, her full as-

Adora’s heart stops but somehow her hand is still animated enough to cover her eyes.

“Catra!” she squeaks out. “You’re not wearing clothes!”

Through the gaps in her fingers, Adora can just barely see her glance back at the phone without a care.

“Duh. You’ve seen me naked before.”

“I absolutely have not!” Adora argues. 

She’d certainly remember that if it had happened. Catra would remember it too cause the blonde imagines she’d turn into a full gay wreck.

“No?” She can hear, but thankfully not see, the smile in Catra’s voice. “Lower that hand and we can fix that.” 

Adora’s never heard Catra’s voice so low and it is absolutely doing things to her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea right now, Cat.”

“Why'd you video me at midnight if you didn’t want a show?”

“ _ You _ videocalled  _ me _ !”

“...really? Well, shit.” 

There’s a sound of rustling and Adora takes a risky peek back at the screen. Catra’s pulled on a huge charcoal sweater that goes almost down to her knees. She’s basically drowning in the material and it looks so comfy that Adora’s simultaneously jealous of it and deeply relieved that Catra’s covered up. She lowers her hand from her eyes. 

“Dor,” Catra says, sounding kinda lost. “I think I forgot to fall asleep.”

She always wants to take care of Catra, who usually fights this tooth and nail. Maybe she’ll be more amenable all hopped up on sleeping pills.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Adora agrees with a warm smile. “Why don’t you go lay down and we can talk more?” 

She lies back herself, hoping that Catra will mimic her.

“Are you in bed like a good girl?” 

It’s an innocent question. Catra’s husky, half-asleep voice makes it sound almost pornographic though.

Adora gasps quietly before she can stop it, that voice igniting a fire inside of her.

She hopes Catra’s too out of it to notice. So of course Catra freezes whatever she’s doing in her closet and tilts her head in that way that Adora’s come to love. She licks her lips absently, oh-so-slowly stepping closer to the camera. Like she’s stalking prey.

She looks Adora in the eyes. 

“Did you like that?” she whispers with a rasp. Adora has to end this immediately. “Is it my voice?” Catra pauses to grin wickedly. “Or you want to be my good girl?”

Both, if Adora’s being honest, are helping her discover all sorts of new things about herself. She has to put a stop to this though, out of a deep sense of propriety.

“Catra!” she tries to sound scandalized.

Very much on brand, the only response is a very devilish chuckle. 

“You know, in college, I thought about reading dirty audio books for cash. Chickened out though.” Catra captures Adora’s eyes with a look so intense that it gives the blonde goosebumps on her arms. She notices Catra’s hand has moved to slowly caressing her own collarbone. “I could read you something.”

“Nope!” Adora’s fucking amazed that she doesn’t stutter. Think of de-escalation tactics. Firm, gentle voice. “Cat-”

“You wanna come over instead?” the feline interrupts. “I was thinking of going for a run but-”

“Please don’t do that! Have you learned nothing from all the true crime shows you make me watch?”

Catra’s already heading to the shoe section, presumably to find some trainers.

Adora will never be able to get there in time if she decides to actually leave. She’s not even wearing  _ pants _ for fuck’s sake! Catra will probably be arrested for indecent exposure and then her career will be ruined and it’ll all be Adora’s fault for getting distracted by a silly phrase.

A last ditch idea occurs to her. 

“I’m having trouble falling asleep too, Cat. Why don’t you get in your bed and tell me how comfy it is?”

It’s dumb, she knows. But Catra’s not exactly functioning at her usual near-genius level. ‘Comfy’ is pretty much always her desired mood anyway.

Catra makes a very quiet questioning purr. She tries to stand still to consider this and sways just a bit.

“You want that?” 

When Adora nods vigorously, she follows the command. It’s a complete blessing that she actually remembers to take the phone with her.

The process of settling into the bed is not short at all. Melog doesn’t appreciate being awoken and Catra misjudges her own strength when she tries to pet them. They swat at her in return and the two hiss at each other for a while, until Catra apologizes and professes her love for them, nearly in tears. Then she can’t figure out how to unmake the bed and pull back the heavy comforter so Adora has to talk her through it.

Finally laying down, Catra sets up the phone on her nightstand to face her, pulls the heavy blankets up, and tucks herself in. She wiggles with her eyes closed for a bit, in the cutest fucking way. When she opens them to see Adora again, Catra gives her a content purr. She’s buried all the way up to her neck in a blanket cocoon and Adora’s heart bursts.

“Is it nice?” the blonde asks with a quiet giggle.

“Fucking luxurious,” Catra sighs. “I need three more comfy layers and a thundershirt.”

“We’ll go shopping this weekend,” Adora promises, trying to quiet her laugh.

Catra whines, sounding small and drowsy, “Tell me a story.” 

“Fake or real?”

“Don’t care, Dor. Just wanna hear your voice.” Who knew Catra could be so needy and sweet?

That makes Adora stumble a bit but she’s able to remember, more or less, the plot to a silly horse movie that she loved as a kid so she just retells that. Catra’s too busy purring to make fun of her for being a ‘horse girl,’ as she’s fond of calling it. Pretty soon, the purr turns to a deep snore. Adora only keeps the call going for a minute or two before her own eyelids are drooping and she has to hang up.

Adora’s between scheduling meetings and approving monthly expenses the next day, when Glimmer pops her head into her office. She does not look happy.

“You have a very rude visitor,” Glimmer informs her, before disappearing immediately.

A second, not familiar, voice replies, “And a very rude assistant.” 

A short young woman with a blue-colored bob appears in her doorway. She’s dressed in business casual and holding her phone up strangely. There's an oddly familiar canvas bag on her shoulder.

Adora can hear Glimmer grumble as she walks away, “I’m the godsdamn Administration  _ Director _ .”

“Hi?” the blonde says. Before she can ask more, the girl turns her phone around. On the screen is Catra.

Her phone must be propped up on her desk somewhere because Adora recognizes her office and Catra’s wearing her gold-rimmed glasses that she only uses for work. Those plus the navy blue pinstriped suit she has on is a lot for Adora, but she refuses to swoon in front of the stranger standing before her.

“Catra?”

On the screen, she looks up from the paperwork on her desk. 

“ _ Hey,  _ Adora. I know you almost never answer your cell during work hours so I made Frosta call me. Say hello, Frosta.”

Adora looks up at the young woman, ‘Frosta’ apparently, who just sighs angrily. 

Catra’s mentioned her fiery intern before, mostly to say how much the law student reminds her of herself when she was younger. She says it in such a fond way that Adora was looking forward to meeting the girl. Catra had very much downplayed Frosta’s quiet rage, it seemed.

She continues on, “Thanks for saving me the other night. Last time I forgot to go to sleep, I texted my ex ‘you tryin to get in this V or nah?’ so you thwarted a possible disaster.” She laughs while Adora’s not sure how to process any of those words. “I owe you one. Sorry for being so annoying.”

“You weren’t,” Adora says quickly. “Thanks for trusting me to help.”

Catra gives her a brilliant smile, eyes soft and playful. “Always. I gotta go though. Bye, Dor.”

The call ends before Adora can fully get her bearings. Frosta not-too-gently tosses something on her desk. It’s a tupperware, full of roasted vegetables and potatoes and chicken. When she gently opens the lid, the scent of tarragon fills the room.

“She got up early apparently,” Frosta grumbles. “She stressed that this is for  _ you _ and not whatever a ‘glitter bow’ is.” 

She turns to leave swiftly, apparently already over this interaction. At the doorway, Frosta pauses, turning back with a deep, long-suffering sigh. 

“Mermista and I talk –  _ no one’s _ gotten the treatment that you’ve gotten. I’ve been Catra’s intern for 2 full years and I’ve certainly never had to make a delivery in the middle of a huge negotiation. Good luck with her. She’s a walking horror show...but she deserves someone nice.”

She exits without another word.

Catra had worked late the night before and still woke up early to do something kind for Adora. Yes, the signs were all there that she cared very deeply for her friend.

And Adora was nice. Anyone would be lucky to have her, Catra had said. It was getting harder to keep coming up with reasons to exclude Catra from the list of possible ‘anyones’.

They clearly both had a lot of feelings for one another. An admitted attraction. They were a good complement to each other. Adora was dependable and consistent and provided safety; Catra was adventurous and assertive and pushed Adora in all the right ways.

It was important to be sure before moving forward, though. Just 8 more steps to go. But at least Adora had a new and updated step to add to the list – deciding the perfect time and strategy to tell Catra how she felt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> obviously the true issue is that the plan needs, like, several more steps. this chapter had been shorter but i was needing more entrapta. i'm not sure if catra actually collectively calls them 'glitter bow' or frosta just misheard but i was into it either way.
> 
> chapter 9 preview: you know that part in the story description mentioning catra's past? yeah, about that...


	9. Shoot Her Shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora decides to shoot her shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i went through and responded to all y'all's amazing and silly comments right before posting so that i could remember a better time where we were happy. cause the next couple chapters are the darkest pieces of this.
> 
> oof, warnings. all the warnings. there's angst. i don't even like angst. there's no specifics about abuse but it's super heavily implied. so if you need to skip, start at "excellent" and jump down to "can we call a timeout".
> 
> also, because this chapter has a legit villain, there's some deadnaming and mispronouning. never thought i'd write that cause, you know, i get enough of it in real life but i really hit the throttle on her being trash.

Adora was proud of the progress she was making on her plan. She, of course, couldn't tell anyone else for fear of being absolutely roasted alive. But inwardly, she thought she was really starting to make some in-roads and was excited about how things were moving. The past few weeks, she and Catra had both gotten a little bolder with the boundaries of their friendship.

The weather was warm now and everyone wanted to hang out more, gently forcing them into what definitely was feeling like double- and triple-dates with the group.

First, drag queen trivia with Perfuma and Scorpia at Catra's favorite queer bar where they'd slaughtered everyone and the two hosts complained about the "happy couple" and how everyone hates "gorgeous brilliant people in love". Adora noticed that night that even Catra blushed along with her. Their prize for 1st place was free drinks so they were beyond tipsy by the end of the outing. As they left, Adora had never wanted to kiss someone so badly but reasoned that she should re-evaluate when they were both sober.

Then there was a concert for some band that Adora had never heard of with all of their friends, where Catra danced the whole time, not seeming to pick up on or care about all the people around her gawking. Instead, she tempted Adora into joining her and they swayed together for the rest of the night, her back pressed firmly against Adora’s front. The music, the trippy lights, and Catra in her arms, all gave the night an almost hypnotic feel. Glimmer kept hinting for her to make a move; at least, that's what Adora assumed her cartoonishly blatant hand signals meant. But it already felt so magical – no need to rock the boat.

The cherry was, ironically, strawberry picking at Bow’s insistence. Catra got bored immediately and corralled Adora into carrying her on piggyback up and down the rows of fruit, while Glimmer and Bow frolicked and had an impromptu photoshoot. The clandestine pics they got of Adora and Catra giggling with each other at the couple’s expense made them look deliriously happy and completely in their own world together. Catra made Glimmer send her the photos. The next time Adora went over to her place, one of the pictures was printed and in a small frame next to Catra’s bed. She refused to let Adora ask about it but she was looking a lot redder under her copper fur.

So Adora’s decided to skip a few steps of her plan. She knows it’s impulsive, throwing caution to the wind like this, but truthfully, it just feels so right. Maybe Bow and Glimmer’s rants about the perfection of Catra and Adora together are starting to break through to her. Maybe Perfuma’s gentle (though not _subtle_ ) reminders about not being stubborn, breaking out of old patterns, and being open are starting to make sense. Maybe thinking about Catra’s low voice whispering that she’s a good girl is still playing in a loop in her mind. For all those reasons, and the one million times Catra has made her heart pick up speed, Adora decides to ‘shoot her shot’ as Catra would say.

Glimmer and Catra are right – Adora is kind’ve a catch. She’s attractive, in that pretty basic way. She can be funny. Sometimes. She’s kind and patient and honorable. She started a whole fucking organization, for Gods’ sake! She _is_ a catch, she just needs to remind herself of that and stop downgrading herself to ‘kinda’. Catra is already aware that Adora works a lot and doesn’t know how to talk about feelings. Just because those were issues with other girlfriends before doesn’t matter; Catra’s not them and she always wants to support Adora instead of trying to change her. And Adora could totally grow into those things! One day probably.

She’s going for it! What’s the worst thing Catra can do? Laugh in her face probably. Adora will live. Catra made her watch a terrible tv movie about a woman whose internet girlfriend was really her high school worst enemy playing out a long revenge con. So, you know, her life could be worse? She’ll survive the embarrassment.

Adora wants this conversation to be direct and low-key. If she has 1.5 to 2 beers, she’ll have the courage to say it. Just look straight in Catra’s very distracting eyes, try not to get lost, and ask her to go on an actual date. 

Glimmer thinks Adora should profess her _love_. Adora thinks she should maybe block Glimmer’s number finally.

Today’s the day though. Adora thought about wearing something special but realized that she didn’t have any suitable clothes, other than her usual outfit. She wanted to pick up flowers or something but didn’t have the time. Yes, this plan is already off the rails but it’s still very salvageable. She’s wrapping up her last tasks and Catra should be there any moment to pick her up.

“Excellent. You’re not busy,” a voice observes, even though Adora literally has a stack of papers that she’s clearly zoning out while reading on her desk.

The presence makes her skin crawl a little, instinctively. She glances up and it’s that awful woman. Ugh. Adora doesn’t know her name but she’s seen her around before. So tall, so deathly pale that she’s almost blue, so ostentatious in her dark red gown. 

The woman runs one of the group homes and in the past, Adora’s seen her picking up kids from the program. It had been several months though, so she was hoping that that was the last of her. How unfortunate that she’s now standing in Adora’s office and there’s no way to escape her.

“Sorry, I do have a deadline. Do we have an appointment scheduled, Miss…?”

“Weaver,” the woman supplies. She turns her nose up at the prospect of having to be scheduled in. “This will only take a moment.” 

Pushing further into the room before Adora can protest, she brandishes a small white paper in her hand. 

“What is the meaning of _this_?”

Weaver hands it over for Adora to examine. It’s a business card with Catra’s name and info. A little well-worn, with dirt and stains and spots where it’s crumbled.

“What exactly is the problem?” Adora asks, confused.

“I found this hiding in my ward’s possessions. Felicity says she got it here.”

It takes Adora a bit of time to piece together who she’s talking about. And then a bit longer to figure out how to navigate this without disrespecting Finn or outing them to their guardian. Though, it's possible that this asshole already knows Finn's _correct_ name and pronouns and is doing this intentionally. Either way, she'll have to tread lightly, keeping the kid's safety at the top of her mind.

She tries the easiest route, “If I remember, they got it from an adult on one of our outings. Just a harmless gesture, I think. In case they want to be a lawyer when they grow up.”

“I’d hardly call that person _harmless_ ,” Weaver replies, narrowing her eyes. “Are these the kind of people interacting with the children here?” 

It’s very clear what answer she’s expecting.

“I’m sorry,” Adora says with what she hopes is a small, placating smile. “Could you tell me what exactly is your concern here?”

“I’m allowing Felicity to attend your program to _enrich_ her mind, not have it poisoned by...untoward ideas.”

Adora furrows her brow. “Like lawyers?”

Weaver narrows her eyes in annoyance.

She truly has no idea what the hell this woman’s issue is. If anything, she should be happy that Finn’s connecting with adults who have gotten out of the system and managed to stay out. Though, if the woman is as big of an oddball as she seems, maybe knowing her kid has access to a lawyer freaks her out. This just makes Adora more curious.

“People who practice _improper_ lifestyles,” Weaver hisses.

Oh. Adora looks at the card again. Sure, maybe if Weaver looked Catra up, she’d be able to find out more about her. The blonde wasn’t really sure if Catra’s queerness was something she’d stumble upon though, just laying around out there on the internet.

Why was something feeling like it should click for her, though? Something about the card, that day at the amusement park...

 _Weaver_. ‘Weaver would skin me alive’ or something like that, Catra had said. 

Adora tries to hide her reaction, her widening eyes and quickening pulse. Cause, no, this has to be statistically impossible. That’s such a common last name that this can’t possibly be the same horrible person who raised – and as far as Adora can guess, _hurt_ – Catra. Can’t be her standing in Adora’s office complaining about Catra. Can’t be her that has custody of Finn.

“I-” she stumbles. 

Fuck. This is a bad time for Adora to remember how fucking queer this whole office is, herself especially. There’s no way that Weaver’s going to leave Finn in the program if she finds out. Meeting her now, Adora thinks they definitely do need to stay – this is the only way she can keep an eye on them and make sure they’re okay at Weaver’s place.

She tries to start again, more collected, “I-”

This time, Adora’s interrupted by Catra’s voice coming down the hall towards them. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know the way, Sparkles.”

This could not be more of a fucking catastrophe. They have safety protocols for situations like this, but those are supposed to be for the youth, not full-grown adults about to be potentially retraumatized. She can't really alert anyone else without overplaying her hand with Weaver. 

Weaver must still recognize Catra's voice, because the woman’s whole demeanor stiffens even more.

“Excuse me a second,” Adora says to her quickly, rushing to intercept Catra in the hallway.

“Ms. Morgan?” the blonde calls out, lightly. 

Catra stops and frowns when she looks at Adora, who must be a floundering mess. 

As quietly as she can, Adora whispers, “ _Please_ follow me, Cat,” knowing that it’ll be picked up only by her ears.

Adora tries to move them in the direction of Perfuma's office. This seems like the safest bet to pause things and keep them under control.

“Ah,” she hears behind them. “Here she is now. _Catrina._ ”

Adora acknowledges rationally that it’s an odd time for her to learn that she didn’t even know Catra’s full name. It makes her wonder how much more she has no idea about.

Next to her, Catra stops cold. She looks to Adora, eyes wide and questioning, almost child-like in a way. It's only there for a second, before they shutter and turn icy with rage. 

Catra whips around to Weaver, claws already unsheathing. Adora steps in front of her, just in case things escalate. This puts her directly between Catra and Weaver, which feels like a very dangerous place to be. 

“Ms. Morgan,” Adora starts, focusing Catra's attention on her. “I’m dealing with one of the guardians of our _youth_. Can you meet with Perfuma instead?” She tries to plead with her eyes, hoping Catra will understand. Hell, hoping that Catra isn't so triggered that Adora can even get through to her.

Thank the Gods for Perfuma. Catra's not backing down and has started to look past Adora at Weaver, almost daring her former guardian to say another word. But Perfuma appears quietly at her shoulder. She's smiling at Adora like she clearly has no idea what's happening but is more than happy to take the reigns.

“Catra, let's check in quickly,” she suggests. 

Before Catra can respond, Adora strides back to Weaver and practically shoves her back into her office. She closes the door. Locks it just in case.

Weaver's creepy face is oddly smug. “Your alley cat just drops by unannounced?”

“Ms. Morgan is a donor.” 

It's not a complete lie. It's just not the complete truth. Adora rationalizes that there's a difference and it's acceptable because of the greater good. She's worried as all hell about Catra but she's willing to focus on saving one cat at a time.

Weaver raises an eyebrow. “A donor?” She looks at the card on Adora's desk again. “So she does well for herself?” There's something akin to a quiet wistfulness in her tone.

“I believe so,” Adora answers unsurely. She doesn't get this woman at all. “Catra seems to be fairly successful. She got a client to cover that daytrip completely and she's raised a substantial amount of money for us. She really cares about our mission. This visit was unusual – just delivering another donation in person. Generally, our donor base isn’t allowed regular access to the program participants. Safety and confidentiality precautions.”

Weaver might be thrown off cause she just hums in acknowledgement. This is a good time to strike.

“I think it would be a good idea to enroll any children in your care in more of our courses actually. Our program evaluations consistently show improvements in grades, decreased disciplinary actions at school, and increased pathways for careers.” Adora grits her teeth and forces the next part out, feeling like an absolute scumbag for appeasing this woman. “ _Felicity_ , in particular, could probably use more outlets for their energy.”

“That is true,” Weaver agrees. She steels her gaze, examining Adora then nods slowly. “Perhaps that is a good idea. She’s currently the only child in my care. She could have a very promising future with more guidance.”

Adora attempts her most charming smile, stomach churning. “I agree completely. Let me take you to our Program Director, Bow, who can help with the additional enrollments.”

She rushes back to the door, listening out for Catra’s voice. There’s nothing. That’s a good sign, right? Adora even takes a peek out into the hallway but it’s pretty quiet now. She’s able to hurry Weaver into Bow’s office and leave her there, making excuses about deadlines.

The next stop is Perfuma’s office. Maybe she can grab Catra and leave. Obviously, their plans for the night are completely on hold but Catra’s safety is the top priority now.

The office is empty though, lights turned off and door locked. Adora can feel her panic rising. Catra needs her and she has no fucking clue where she is right now. She rushes around the rest of the LAP space, checking in every room. Through sheer luck, she’s able to corner Glimmer coming out of the restroom and ask what she knows.

“That woman looked like the godsdamn cryptkeeper, Adora,” Glimmer mutters. “Try to make sure she never comes back, okay? She scared the living shit out of Catra. Perfuma had to leave early to take her home.”

Adora runs out before she’s even sure Glimmer’s done speaking. She spends the short drive over completely freaking out. A consummate rule follower, Adora’s never broken as many traffic laws as she does that night trying to get to Catra. All of her attempts to call go ignored which only serves to make her speed faster, running past the door person and letting herself in.

The first thing Adora notices about the apartment is that it smells good, oddly. Like dinner.

“Hi,” she starts tentatively, closing the door behind herself. Catra and Perfuma are both on the living room couch, so focused on their laptops that they don’t even look up at her. Scorpia, however, pops her head out of the kitchen.

Adora’s never seen her look so flustered, hair mussed, eyes wild. She’s the only one acting reasonably right now. 

“Hi, buddy! Thank the Gods you’re here. Catra, look! Adora’s here.” Scorpia sounds as panic-stricken as Adora feels.

When Catra still doesn’t do more than give a quiet ‘mmrp’, Scorpia sighs and returns to the kitchen. Adora begins to move slowly over to the couch.

“Cat?” She gets only a raised eyebrow in response, not even a glance. Adora takes a second to think of a different tactic. “You’re letting Scorpia cook?” _Adora’s_ never allowed to touch the kitchen there, except to fill the dishwasher. She didn’t realize there were different rules for everyone else.

“It’s just meat and potatoes,” Catra mumbles, absently. “Not even you could screw that up. Plus, if we didn’t give her something to do, she’d just be barreling around here, slowing us down.”

“Meat and potatoes is my favorite,” Adora says, teasing. Catra’s never passed up on an opportunity to make fun of her and Adora’s not sure what else would grab her attention right now.

“Duh,” Catra replies, still not really engaging. “Only you would want something so boring.”

“So _classic_ ,” Adora corrects. Might as well rip the band-aid off now then. “So Weaver’s evil incarnate-”

A deep growl starts up in Catra’s chest. Perfuma finally has to put her computer down to place an arm on her friend’s shoulder.

She gently suggests, “Perhaps it’s time to take a break and hear what Adora has to say.”

“I can do both,” Catra mutters darkly. “Go on, Dor.”

Adora shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another. The lack of context she has here is really unsettling. 

“She came by to complain. But I did get her to sign Finn up for more courses with LAP. That way, the instructors and staff can keep an eye on them. See if there’s anything feeling like a flag and then intervene as necessary.”

With a completely empty tone, Catra responds, “That’s great.”

Perfuma tries to be encouraging. “Why don’t you tell Adora more about your concerns?”

Catra pauses on her computer for a second. When she looks up, Adora can tell for the first time that she’s been crying, dried tear tracks lining the fur on her face. They hold each other’s gaze momentarily, Adora trying to convey as much care and understanding as she can. But Catra falters, returning to her laptop.

“It’s too early for that,” she whispers. 

Adora’s shoulders slump. Catra had secrets, sure, but she’d never outright refused to divulge anything to Adora.

“Maybe you can tell me what you’re working on?” She tries to sound more hopeful than she feels.

Catra glances at Perfuma out of the corner of her eye, who takes that as her cue to answer. 

“Catra is looking through legal databases for anything she can find on Weaver, her business, or her associates. She’s asked me to check with my network of social workers to see if anyone’s ever raised any flags about Weaver.” 

Perfuma pauses, a little nervously, like maybe she isn’t supposed to say this next part. 

“Catra would like to get Weaver's home shut down.”

The returning growl means she _definitely_ wasn’t supposed to tell Adora that part.

The idea is probably justified, but it doesn’t strike Adora as a long-term solution. 

“That's fine,” she comments, “but what next? We can't guarantee the next place Finn goes is somewhere better. We also don’t have proof of anything.” 

This is futile, Adora should know. When she’s upset, Catra rarely wants to hear solutions in the moment. Adora usually has to wait a while until she cools off to suggest ways to address the problem. Until then, it’s usually best just to swaddle Catra in blankets, feed her, and let her rant.

Nothing about this situation is sitting well with Adora, though. They need to separate the two different issues – Catra’s very real past trauma and Finn’s unconfirmed current harm.

"Maybe we should think this through,” Adora tries.

For the first time since she arrived, Catra’s eyes focus fully on her. Her nostrils flare. Her claws seem to be unsheathing themselves against her will. 

“I don’t need you to come in here and try to control the situation, Dor. By the way, next time you think I’m having a crisis, try talking to me. Not doing damage control.”

“I’m sorry,” Adora says immediately. She really is. She wanted to be there for everyone and she made a choice that hurt the person closest to her. But, “I had to do what I thought was best to handle it.”

“I don’t need you to handle it! It would have been good if you thought of _me_ first. Asked me how I wanted to handle it. You don’t always know what’s best, Dor.”

“I know it would be a bad idea to be rash right now,” she returns. “Any mistake could make things worse for Finn.”

“I know that!” Catra says quickly. She puts the computer aside and stands. “That’s why we have to shut Weaver down immediately. Who knows how many other kids she’s-” Catra catches herself.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened,” Adora feels like she should clarify. “I just want to help you. And help Finn. Weaver says she doesn’t have any other kids right now.”

Catra narrows her eyes, moving closer to Adora. 

“What else did she tell you?”

The blonde swallows thickly. Everything Weaver said of importance was to trash Catra.

“Adora? Why was she even there?” 

She vaguely notices that Scorpia’s footsteps are behind her and Perfuma’s stood and moved next to Catra. She looks to them and they’re no help at all, both bracing themselves for the outburst that they can all feel coming.

With a sigh, Adora reluctantly admits, “She doesn’t want Finn around a bunch of queers.”

Catra hisses, taking a step forward until Scorpia gets closer to Adora. 

“Of course she doesn’t. She made it sound like she was looking for me – did she find my card?”

Adora nods. The sound that comes out of Catra is somewhat a mix of a dark chuckle and a growl. 

“And you what? You got her to sign Finn up for more. What did you say – how much you love being _straight_?!”

Adora already felt like shit, like she’d sold them all out. This wasn’t fucking helping either of them at this point.

She just shakes her head.

“Gods, Adora, did you even stand up for yourself?”

“Okay,” Perfuma interjects, taking a deep breath, “let’s all remember that none of us are the problem. Weaver is the problem. Let’s refocus and try to communicate what’s coming up for us so that we can figure out a way to move forward.”

“What’s coming up for me,” Catra says, eyes blazing, “is that Weaver’s a hateful piece of shit. And Adora’s too cowardly to admit who she is.”

“It wouldn’t have helped anything!” She’s certain this is true. Weaver needed gentle force in the right direction, not to be confronted on her core beliefs. That would have just escalated everything and further isolated Finn. “I can’t jump into every little thing half-cocked with no plan.”

When Catra attempts to step closer to Adora this time, Perfuma softly grabs her by the elbow. 

“What? Like I do?” Catra asks.

“That’s not what I was implying.”

“Can we just call a timeout real quick?” Scorpia tries.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you took a chance every once in a while,” Catra says pointedly, completely ignoring everyone else.

“I don’t want to fuck up everything!” Adora replies. 

She starts to think of their plans tonight, what she was going to say. Catra's not just angry about Weaver, Adora knows; it must feel like Adora denied who Catra was to her. Everything’s starting to spiral together. 

“Cat, can we just talk alone in your room? For a minute?” It’s said quietly. 

Catra’s ears swivel to hear and then flatten down against her head.

“Why?” she says back just as sofly. She wraps her arms around herself like she’s bracing for something.

Perfuma clears her throat. 

“Scorpia and I are going to step out on the balcony for a short while. Just let us know if you need anything.” 

Then they disappear, leaving Catra and Adora standing in the living room a couple feet away but miles apart from each other.

It’s awful. The way that Catra’s looking at her, how hurt she is. How the words that Adora was so excited to say tonight feel bitter on her tongue, threatening to spill out now. Threatening to ruin everything.

“Did you explain why I was there? Who did you tell her I was to you?” Catra asks softly, sounding so small.

Adora wants to hug her but knows she can’t now. 

“A donor,” she admits.

Catra nods shortly. “Is that what I am, Dor?”

It’s complicated to try to explain what Catra means to her. In the best of times, it’s muddled and uncertain. Somehow both too big and not enough. Right now, under this microscope that Weaver just added to it, it’s like some unknowable cosmic event that she can’t piece together. She barely understands how she feels. She thought she knew how Catra felt. That doesn’t help describe exactly what any of this _means_ though.

Tentatively, she responds, “Um...I wanted to talk about that tonight actually.”

Catra barks out a mirthless laugh. “What a convenient answer.”

“I-I don’t know what else to tell you.” 

She does. She could tell Catra the truth. She doesn’t know what it is but she could say something. Take a risk like Catra’s asked her to. 

She could say that Catra’s one of the most important people in her life. She could say that she’s never felt closer to anyone before.

Adora could say that she's in way too deep, that she’s fallen for Catra.

Instead, she just shrugs and sighs, looking down at the floor.

“Get out.” Catra sounds eerily calm.

Her eyes snap back up to Catra, who looks completely closed off. 

“...what?”

“I have things to do, Adora. _Leave_.” She bares her teeth and stalks back to the couch, before picking her computer up again.

Adora waits a couple minutes but Catra doesn’t relent. She knows it’s best when she gives her friend some time to cool off. So Adora says goodnight, turns, and leaves before Catra can see the tears welling up in her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like the record to reflect that i am not happy about this either. my last fic has a chapter titled "did you just shoot shadow weaver in the fucking face to defend my honor" and that's how i'd like to remember her. being shot in the face by she-ra magic.
> 
> my biggest regret is that i didn't find a way to shoehorn some melog in here. they would have been a grounding force.


	10. A Hole They Didn’t Know Was There

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i appreciate that y'all were into the angst from last chapter! hope you're interested in some more cause i leaned into full-blown wallowing. this is a little shortie to help shuttle us along.

It was only supposed to be a couple days. 

One time, only a couple months into hanging out, Adora had forgotten to call Catra when she promised. So they didn’t talk for like 24 hours. Adora finally realized that she should apologize when she didn't get a response to her texts. Afterward, Catra acted like it hadn’t been a big deal. (It should be noted that after the apology, Catra suddenly regained the ability to reply to Adora's texts.)

She wasn’t sure what the fall-out would be for this situation with Weaver, but Adora thought she’d give Catra until the weekend before reaching out. They’d text a bit. Catra would still be pissed. Adora would go over and they’d talk and it would be done.

The same night as their fight, Adora texted Catra to say that she was sorry, that she cared about her friend, and that she’d give her space like Catra had asked. She wasn’t surprised when she didn’t receive a response.

Two days later, she sent a message saying that she had spent the time apart reflecting on what Catra said and would like to talk in person. It was slightly shocking when she never heard back.

And so it continued like that for weeks. Adora texted, called, left voicemails, tried to send messages through Glimmer, Bow, and Perfuma. Catra never reached out. At one point, Adora stopped by her place but the door person made it clear that she wasn’t allowed up under any circumstances.

She knows that Glimmer and Bow talk to Catra but they refuse to tell her anything. Perfuma tries to give advice, telling Adora to be patient and to be open to listening, but she doesn’t offer more than that. It’s so fucking frustrating, feeling like Catra is so close but not being able to know anything about her. Adora finds herself constantly wondering what Catra’s thinking or feeling. If she’d be amused by this dumb thing Adora did today. How she’s sleeping. What happened with her plan for Weaver. Who she’s dating.

Bow’s been trying to get Adora to go back to therapy. He thinks she’s depressed and needs deeper support right now. He doesn’t get it, Adora knows. He’s had Glimmer his entire life and they’ve never had a huge rift, one that felt like it might be an obstacle they couldn't overcome. 

Adora didn't realize how devastating it would be to not have Catra in her life. She’s only known her half the year but they’d both managed to push their way into each other’s lives and fill a hole that they didn’t know was there. 

Or at least, that’s how Adora feels. She realizes that she has no idea how Catra feels about her, especially now.

Catra unsettled her, in a good way. She laid waste to all of Adora’s carefully crafted plans, pushing her out of her comfort zone and out of her own head. Adora never thought she’d enjoy being challenged to grow like that but Catra did it with such love and care that she always felt safe. Safe to fail. Safe to fall. They gave each other a place to belong for the first time. Without it, Adora just feels adrift.

Missing Catra physically hurts. Adora’s stomach is always in knots now. She stopped going to the gym and going for runs, which was probably a dumb mistake cause now she feels like she barely even knows her own body anymore. Half the time, Adora doesn’t know what she’s doing. Everything feels very far away, like she’s watching her own life through a boring, depressing tv show. Work is awful but she powers through it on autopilot. Besides that, she’s not able to do much else. Bow and Glimmer make an effort to spend time with her, but she isn't very good company, barely speaking unless it's to ask about Catra.

Everything at LAP is still running as smoothly as usual except for one glaring exception. Finn stopped coming to the program. They never quit formally and every time she's tried to get in contact with Weaver, she hasn’t heard back. As summer started, courses got more intensive, particularly for kids who didn’t have to attend summer school. She expected to see a lot more of Finn, but it seems like Catra was right after all. After several weeks, Adora looked into it more and Weaver's house was apparently no longer operating. 

Adora had screwed everything up over nothing probably.

* * *

Scorpia's birthday is coming up. No one’s mentioning it directly because it's pretty obvious that Adora isn't invited.

At first, she thinks that's out of character for Scorpia, picking a side. But Scorpia’s also very loyal and if Catra hates Adora then Scorpia and everyone else hates her too.

“No one hates you, you fucking drama queen,” Glimmer says. “You and your almost girlfriend had a fight. You’re taking some space. Scorpia’s probably respecting that.”

“And she knows you hate parties,” Bow points out. “She might just be doing you a favor. Remember you’re working on not catastrophizing?”

Adora just barely pauses on spiraling about how no one likes her and she’s going to be ostracized and have to move to another city and make new friends. She sucks at making new friends. Catra’s been the last exception to that in like 15 years.

“Listen,” Glimmer calls out. “What if we go catch a movie instead? Or go to that German beer hall and play cornhole?”

Bar games are  _ Adora and Catra’s _ thing, though.

“No, you’re already dressed. I don’t want to be a burden.”

Bow and Glimmer look very cute. Adora intentionally overhead that Scorpia’s birthday is at a speakeasy and they’re both wearing muted colors for once in their life. Though to be fair, Glimmer’s black cocktail dress is still sequined and Bow’s wearing a crop top under his dark red blazer.

They complement each other well.

“I’m so happy you found each other,” Adora tells them.

“Oh fuck, are you crying?” Glimmer asks with some shock.

“No!” Adora replies, but she’s blubbering now.

Glimmer and Bow exchange a quick look and then they’re both encircling her, wrapping Adora up in a tight hug. They ignore her gasp.

Adora’s never been a touchy person. She hugs her friends but since she sees them all the time, it’s not really necessary to do it with each greeting or anything. Really, until she met Catra, Adora didn't enjoy physical touch very much. But that seemed to be one of Catra’s love languages (including, really, all of them) and Adora learned to get used to it. Came to love it. Misses it so much.

Realizing the multiple ways that she’s longing for Catra brings a new wave of tears to Adora’s eyes.

“Come on, big girl,” Glimmer whispers and she and Bow start to maneuver the blonde out of the living room and into her bedroom, without breaking their group hug.

Bow manages to only walk into a wall once.

They get her down onto her bed.

“I have work to do.”

“It’s 8pm on a Saturday. No, you don’t,” Bow says sternly.

“You’re burning out,” Glimmer points out (yet again). “You have to take a break. Bow’s gonna drag your TV in here and we’re gonna watch Golden Girls.”

“Is there ice cream?” he whispers.

“We’ll order some. Find out where she hides the booze.”

“No,” Adora says firmly. Her voice is a little stronger and clearer now but she’s not moving. “Go to the party. It would mean a lot to Scorpia.”

It takes a lot of effort but she disentangles herself until all three of them are lying side by side. Full-size beds were not meant for this. She’s an adult woman who still has the same small bed she bought when she was in grad school. Of course Catra doesn’t want to be with her. How had she even deluded herself into thinking that?

Adora lays face down in the bed so neither of her friends can see her start crying again.

A weight softly lands across her back. There’s a nice, calming scent of cocoa butter and earthy spices.

Slowly, she calms down enough to realize that she’s being silly about the bed and the bar games. She’s worried about Finn and Catra and she’s never felt more powerless in her fucking life.

“Alright, tapping in,” Glimmer says. The weight shifts and it’s replaced a couple moments later by what is definitely Glimmer lying her full body on Adora. Her toes tickle at the blonde’s calf. The sequins poke into Adora’s back a bit.

She waits until she hears Bow’s footsteps leave to whisper, “I ruined everything.”

“You’re both in an impossible position.You should try actually talking, like I’ve suggested only a hundred times. And we’ll keep an eye out for Finn. We’ve given other orgs a heads up. Maybe they’ll show up somewhere soon, in another program or a different home. Sadly, we’ve got plenty of experience with this, right?”

Adora is too tired to do more than barely lift her head for a short nod. Glimmer softly brushes the hair away from her face.

“Hey, you did the best with what you had, okay? And look – now you get to write new security protocols. That’s exciting.” Glimmer’s being only medium-level sarcastic.

“Uh huh." 

Adora finished that a month ago. She’s just been pacing out her debut of new projects so no one knows how much she's actually been working, which is basically 18 hours a day now. 

“Everything is gonna be okay, Adora. I know it doesn't feel like it but trust me.”

Glimmer had said a lot of things as usual but she had managed to be correct about one – it definitely didn’t feel like things were going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> writing about someone being sad cause they stopped working out was the most fictional thing i've ever had to imagine. like, it's easier for me to think about what space and portals could be like than it is to fake a character's interest in going to the gym.
> 
> since none of this story is written from catra's point of view, i wanted to give some insight into what she's been doing these last few weeks - it's just listening to bon iver's cover of "i can't make you love me" over and over again. i hope that really enhanced your story experience.


	11. Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A reunion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh, thank you for all the comments! folks were really feeling the heartbreak. i imagine that catra's listening to "cranes in the sky" by solange all morning before this chapter starts.
> 
> look, i don't waste time around here (except, all those examples of when i totally do) so this just dives right in.

**Catra  
** **1:13pm  
** halp

 **Adora  
** **1:19pm  
** Hey, are you okay?  
What’s wrong?  
How do you want me to help?

 **1:28pm  
** Catra, please  
What’s going on?

Adora is pretty proud of herself for showing the restraint to wait almost 10 minutes before sending more messages. She waits another couple minutes before calling. 3 unanswered calls and increasingly bonkers voicemails left later, it seems like a good idea to just head over to Catra’s place. 

She doesn’t want to ask Perfuma or Glimmer and have them meddle so Adora sneaks out of the office. At least she has the presence of mind to call Mermista and make sure that Catra isn’t at work; what’s odd though is that the assistant tells her that Catra is out all this week and the next.

Adora tries to think of what she wants to say to Catra. Should she immediately apologize? Should she let Catra speak first and hear what she needs? Would it be okay for them to hug? Would Catra even want that?

It meant something that Catra had reached out to Adora when she needed help, right? 

This time, the doorperson pays her no mind. So now Adora is lightly pacing outside of Catra’s door, trying to get her nerves together. She understands that Catra’s in need so it’s important for Adora to shove down all of her own anxiousness before accidentally bringing it all into whatever this situation is. _Catra’s_ needs are what matters; Adora doesn’t want to make that mistake again.

With a deep breath, she knocks before letting herself into the unlocked apartment. She’s not really expecting an answer but in the past, Adora always liked to give Catra a heads up. The place looks strangely dark for the middle of the day. Catra loves to nap in sunny spots so it’s concerning that all of the shades are down. It’s also freezing, even though they’re in late summer, the AC probably cranked up to full blast.

“Cat? I’m here,” Adora calls out. She leaves her shoes at the door and goes to the kitchen to grab two glasses of water.

“Miss Adora?”

She spins around quickly to find Finn, of all people, standing in the doorway of Catra’s guest room and nearly drops both glasses. They’re...well, honestly, Adora’s never seen them look so good. They look rested and well-fed for a change.

“Finn!” To say she's shocked doesn't quite capture how out of place this all seems. 

Catra's met them exactly once. Now they're here. In her home. What the hell has happened while she's been ignoring Adora? 

This is the kind of rash thing that she wanted to avoid!

“Wha-what are you doing here?” she asks, trying not to alarm them by freaking out.

“They brought me and Cat said I could stay,” Finn replies. It seems so simple coming out of their mouth and Adora imagines the truth is probably a hell of a lot more complicated than that. 

Finn is wearing pajamas that are a bit too big for them, the sleeves and pant legs rolled up several times, expensive-looking headphones around their neck. The kind that block out noise, probably for their sensitive ears. 

“Is this your room?” Adora asks.

They nod with a huge smile. “It’s big! Cat says I can have more stuff. We have to go to the store again. But she’s sad.” They frown dramatically.

Adora decides to focus on any urgent needs that she can fix. This is what she’s good at. 

“Are you hungry?”

Quickly, Finn’s returns to their usual, overly animated self. 

“We had donuts for breakfast! And Cat said we can get pizza delivered when I’m hungry! I just have to ask and she’ll get it.” They say it like the rules were definitely a lot different with Weaver.

“What are you doing in your room?”

Finn points to the headphones around their neck. “Cat showed me how to watch tv on this big phone. There’s a lot of shows.”

Adora, of course, would like to look into the educational value of these shows, but makes a mental note to worry about this later.

“Okay, seems like you’re all set up. Do you need anything?”

Finn shakes their head. “Can you help Cat, please?”

She switches both waters to one hand so she can ruffle Finn’s hair. Hopefully it comes off as reassuring cause Adora’s not actually sure she can be of any help here yet. Not until she’s feeling a lot less confused and overwhelmed.

“I’ll try,” she says, honestly. “Just knock if you need anything, okay?”

“Tell her that I fed Melog,” Finn adds. Adora glances around them and Melog is indeed stretched out in their bed, asleep.

This will all be really cute, Adora thinks, once she recovers from the initial shock probably.

She makes sure to take another breath before she lets herself into Catra’s room. She doesn’t bother knocking, knowing that Catra probably heard the entire conversation she and Finn just had. Adora’s not wrong – when she walks in, Catra’s wrapped up in her blanket cocoon on the bed with her back to the entrance, but her ears have swivelled back towards the door.

Adora’s not sure what to say until she walks around the bed and sees Catra’s face. There’s obviously bigger things at play here and it doesn’t feel like a great time to open with ‘I missed you and want you. Why haven’t we talked in two months? _Did you steal that child_?!’

Placing both glasses on Catra’s bedside table, Adora ducks down to catch her eyes. She's never looked smaller, buried under too many blankets in her huge bed. Her ears lay down against her head and Adora notices that she has bags under her eyes. She’s thinner too, cheekbones standing out a bit too prominently. Adora has to stamp down on all her instincts to immediately take Catra in her arms and promise she’ll fix everything.

“Hi,” she says instead.

It’s a strange relief when Catra quietly replies, “ _Hey_ , Adora.” She lifts her head out of the blanket a bit more so she can see. “Thanks. For coming, I mean. You didn’t have to. I, uh, didn't mean for you to drop everything and rush over. Just got overwhelmed by your questions pretty quickly.”

“Of course I did. I’m always here for you, Cat. You know that.”

“Promise?”

Adora nods slowly. “I promise. What’s going on?” She takes a seat on the bed, trying to leave plenty of space between them.

That’s never been acceptable to Catra.

“Get in the bed, dummy,” she mumbles. When Adora doesn’t move, trying to figure out if that’s the safest thing to do for everyone, Catra burrows deeper under the covers. “Or don’t, if that’s weird. You don’t have to if you’re still angry with me.”

Adora’s pulling her shirt off before she even thinks about it. She’s not necessarily _angry_ with Catra, doesn’t think she could ever truly be. Adora was annoyed and didn’t agree but wasn’t upset with Catra herself, more with being ignored. Besides, right now, her friend’s obviously in a bad place and she’ll do whatever she can to support. The pants come off next. She doesn't have time to be embarrassed cause Catra needs her now. 

Now sitting on the edge of the bed in only a sports bra and boyshorts, she asks, “Do you have anything I could put on?” When she glances back, Catra’s a lot more alert than she was just a few moments ago. “Sorry – I remember the rules. No outside clothes in bed.” 

Catra had told her this before but Adora had never actually had a reason to deploy this knowledge until now, usually suggesting they relax on the couch or someplace that didn't put her mind and heart into overdrive.

“There’s workout clothes in the closet, maybe,” Catra replies. “It’s warm under here though, you probably won’t need anything. Plus, you’re always like a furnace.”

“Good,” Adora laughs. “Cause it’s freezing in this apartment.”

Catra lifts up the corner of the blanket, signaling how she feels about Adora getting dressed, so the blonde slides in quickly. It really is freezing. That’s her excuse for why her nipples are hard, not because Catra’s eyes are on her so intensely.

She sits down a few feet away, just to keep some space for a second.

“I want to know everything about what’s happening,” Adora begins. “But I need to say something.”

Catra sits up slightly, pulling an arm from under her blanket to prop her head up.

“You’re so important to me, Cat. I know I screwed up.”

Catra opens her mouth so Adora barrels ahead to get this out.

“But completely shutting me out was hard. I’m 100% down to help you out in any way. I hurt you, but you should know that you hurt me too. At some point, we’re going to have to talk about that and hear each other out.”

“Well, I was about to give you a lecture for apologizing when _I_ was the one who acted like a real piece of shit. So I’m proud of you.”

Catra scoots closer, stopping just a foot or so away.

“I shouldn’t have freaked out on you, Dor. You were trying and I just panicked. I wanted to reach out but I really fucking lost it, spiraling about the home. Doing all this research. I, uh, kinda disappeared into it for a while.”

The fact that she did the same thing with work isn’t lost on Adora. Thinking about how miserable they both seemed to be pushes her to close the distance.

She reaches out to pet Catra on top of the blanket. Catra grumbles in that way she does when she's feeling needy and wants more. She moves from under the blanket, pushing Adora until her back is against the headboard, legs stretched out in front of her. Catra shoves her head into her lap, burrowing into Adora's stomach and thighs.

Okay, maybe _now_ Adora has some time to be embarrassed. She probably should have worn at least one more layer. Maybe a shirt so that furry face isn’t directly rubbing against her abs. When Catra starts to purr though, Adora closes her eyes and leans back, letting the sound rumble through her body and relax her.

Adora's never been exactly effusive with her words. Yet, here with Catra against her and the purring calming her nerves for the first time in weeks, she leans down and whispers, “I missed you so fucking much.” 

The purring gets even deeper and louder. “Me, too.” 

“What happened, Cat?”

The sound dies.

“Not with... _us_ ,” Adora adds quickly. “Let’s focus on the present. Seems like a lot’s changed.”

Catra audibly exhales. “Yeah, that’s the other reason for the radio silence. Fucking Weaver died. Was _dying_ for a good while actually, really dragging it out to be difficult.” 

Adora takes a second to let that sink in. That’s definitely a surprise. The woman was horrible but Adora’s never really wished harm on anyone before. 

Catra adds, “I wasn’t responsible if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Adora can’t help it. She laughs. 

“No, that thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical now that you’ve mentioned it though.” Adora realizes she doesn’t know what to do with her hands so she buries them in Catra’s mane. “What happened?”

Catra shrugs. “Apparently she was sick. That’s why she wasn’t taking more kids in. I don’t know what made Weaver think that _I_ was the appropriate choice for this, considering that my whole childhood she told me I wasn’t worth shit, but apparently she made me her next of kin and gave me power of attorney.” 

She pauses to sniffle, the only sign that she’s crying. Her voice sounds so distant, trying to recount this while putting on a strong face.

“There was a nurse and her creepy ‘associates’ and making sure someone was watching the kid. Lonnie flew out and helped for a while, once I broke down and finally tried calling some of the other folks who were raised with me. The asshole even left me the home, along with all her debt and back-owed taxes. I’ve been trying to sort through it but it’s a fucking bitch.” 

She adds as an afterthought, “ _She_ was a fucking bitch.”

“And Finn?”

For the first time, Catra shifts so she can look Adora directly in the eyes. 

“Oh, that’s the best part,” she says sarcastically. “She left them in my care. I spent all of two seconds with child services and a family court judge and they decided that being a cat and a well-off attorney was enough reason to not fight Weaver’s wishes, since technically I’m family and all. They fast-tracked my approval to be a foster placement. The social worker dropped Finn off a couple days ago. Weaver left ‘instructions’ before she died, supposedly. It was just a sticky note that said ‘you’re welcome’.”

Catra incredulously throws her hands up.

“What the fuck is that? Even her last words were just to fuck with me!”

Adora wipes away the tears that have formed in Catra’s eyes. That only makes her dip her head down and hide again in Adora’s tummy. It’s heartbreaking to think of Catra going through all this alone, Weaver’s games, this new responsibility, her own complicated grief.

“I don’t know shit about taking care of anyone,” she mumbles against Adora’s skin.

“You take care of me all the time, Cat,” Adora tells her, smoothing down her wild hair. “Does everyone know?” 

Glimmer and Bow certainly hadn’t mentioned anything about this. Not that they had given many details anyway, but this seems like a big thing to leave out.

“No,” Catra replies firmly. “Scorpia and Perfuma know a little. Entrapta, too, and they have some idea at work. Everyone else thinks I’m just distant cause I’m sad about you. I mean, I _am_. It’s just...not the only thing I fucked up.”

“Come here,” Adora whispers. She shifts them so that she can lay down on her side and takes Catra into her arms. “I’m sorry, Cat. I promise to be here for whatever you need. I don't care that we were fighting. You can always call me and always count on me. You know that, right?”

Catra nods. “Can you bring the burrito back?”

With a giggle, Adora wraps them both in the blankets fully. Catra pulls them closer and Adora notices that she’s only in a thin tank top and bike shorts. They’re touching in as many places as possible but that doesn’t seem like enough for Catra cause she fidgets to intertwine her legs and wrap her tail around Adora’s waist, like she expects the blonde to try to leave. She tilts her head towards Adora’s hands until they’re back in her hair, making more needy little sounds.

Adora fights the urge to tell Catra how much she misses her again. 

“What do you need, Cat? I’ll do literally anything you want.” 

She means about the home and Finn, but understands that their current position might be sending some confusing signals.

“Just you,” Catra sighs. “My friends offered to help. They’re not you, though.”

“Mermista said you took two weeks off.”

She groans in response. “It seemed like the best idea. But all I’ve done is lay here. Poor kid’s probably bored out of their mind.”

“Honestly, I think they’re just loving the freedom. Oh, they wanted me to tell you that they fed Melog.”

“Of course they did,” she replies with a smile. “They’re better than _me_ about that. Though, when they discovered that Melog uses a catbox, they lost their mind. So I’ll probably have to potty train them again. Is 7 too late for that? That feels like something you can do for us.”

Adora laughs because she’s fairly certain that Catra is kidding. “Fine. What else?”

“I don’t know. Maybe just reminding me of the basics this week? Food, sleeping, getting up occasionally. I’m supposed to take them shopping. All of their stuff was in one trash bag. School starts up again in a couple weeks and I don’t even know where they go.”

Which probably means that Catra didn’t register them anywhere. That’s fine. It’s stressful to Adora, actually, but solvable. 

“I’ll make a list.”

“Of course you will,” Catra teases. “I bet you’ve already figured out 30 things that I forgot.”

“That’s what you love about me.”

“It’s _one_ of the things.”

Feeling a bit flustered by that, Adora decides to just push through. 

“I’ll figure a bunch of stuff out. Work is slow – can I work from here this week?” When she gets a nod, she continues, “You’ll let me take care of everything? Of you?”

Catra doesn’t speak or move for a long moment, leading Adora to think she overstepped. She’s been there for less than 10 minutes and she’s already pushed Catra too far – jumping into her bed, trying to take over her life.

“You know I can do this,” Catra says. “But yeah, it would be nice if you could. For me.”

A job. Adora loves a job. Something tangible to help with would be perfect to focus on.

“Okay, good. I'm organized. I can be decisive….sometimes. I don't let things fall through the cracks.” 

“Relax,” Catra mumbles dryly. “It’s not a job interview. You're already hired. Also, it doesn’t pay and I don’t offer college credit.”

Ignoring that, Adora replies, “I just want you to know that I care about you and I'm taking this seriously.” 

Catra sighs but it sounds more wistful than exasperated.

She’s patiently entertaining Adora when she responds, “Fine. You’ll make your task list. How are you gonna manage me?” 

“Well, that's easy. I know everything about you. Cuddles, junk food, bad TV, and just being allowed to be sad, right?”

Catra moves her face into the crook of Adora’s neck and shoulder. 

“Gods, you’re always so good to me.” 

Her voice sounds guilty. Adora knows they’ll have to talk about their fight at some point, but it can take a backseat until things are a bit more figured out.

She doesn’t want to bring this up but she knows she has to. 

“How are you _feeling_?” 

Feelings have never been something that they’re very good at but Catra’s usually better at understanding hers, at least. And Adora knows from experience that she can be enticed into sharing them with enough badgering or bartering.

“Empty,” is all Catra says. 

So Adora just holds her tighter. After a few moments, the dam breaks and she can feel Catra trembling in her arms as her neck gets soaked. 

“She was awful to me. You can’t even imagine. About me being an ‘ _animal_ ’. About me being queer. All of my ‘ _unnatural_ ’ urges. And now she’s dead and if I’m not empty, I’m so fucking angry, Adora, that I feel like I could rip the world in two with my bare hands. I don’t know how to _be_ right now.”

Adora nods. “When my dad died, my real dad who gave me up when I was little, I just shut down for 6 months. I was walking and talking and working but I had so many feelings that I couldn’t even begin to describe them, let alone figure out how to have them, navigate them, tell other people.” 

She pauses to tuck Catra further against her neck. “You can feel however you need to feel, Cat. You have amazing friends who’ll support you.”

Adora really hopes that Catra hears this. 

But in case she doesn’t, “We’ll make you and Finn wellness plans today. You ever done that?” 

Catra shakes her head no. 

“It’s just a way to share what your needs are in a situation. So like, if you know you’ll need someone to make sure you and Finn get 3 meals each day for the next two weeks, you can write that and ask someone for that specific support. I’ll walk you both through it and we’ll figure all this out together. I won’t overwhelm you with a lot of extra stuff. This’ll help us tap in your friends, plus Bow and Glimmer and Mermista and Frosta, even.”

“I don’t want everyone to know.”

“They won’t have to. Like, maybe Mermista just needs to know to keep everyone away from you during this time and to intercept calls from whoever’s helping you with taxes and debts so you can work on that when you need to. Or pass it off to Scorpia. Perfuma can know what your needs are with Finn and work with their social worker to get everything sorted out. It’ll be easier once we know what you need and I can coordinate everyone to support their individual part. No one will have to know more than you want them to.”

Catra sniffles quietly for a few moments. “I’m a fucking mess, Dor. You were right, I could’ve fucked that kid’s life up. And now I have them here and I can’t even get out of bed. I’m an awful person. Why the fuck did I think I could do this?”

Adora holds her tighter.

But Catra continues on, fully spiraling. “I destroy everything. I always push people away – I tried to push you out of my life and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You’re this incredible person who’s so perfect and special and I’m acting like a damaged fucking nightmare. I sent you one word and you came back and you’re taking care of me. I don’t deserve you.”

The deep belly laugh that springs out of Adora is completely unexpected and she can’t control it. It’s very inappropriate based on what they’re talking about currently, Weaver being dead and all. She tries to apologize but it’s swallowed up by her guffaws. Really, everything Catra’s saying is pretty ludicrous though.

“You don’t deserve me?! Kitten, I’ve spent this whole year telling everyone how fucking amazing and magical and brilliant and giving and thoughtful you are. And how I have nothing to offer you. I'm so fucking grateful you trust me to support you right now.”

Catra moves so she can see Adora’s, now blushing, face. 

“Kitten?” Her tone is indecipherable, low, kinda curious, and something else entirely that Adora can't place.

It’s now Adora’s turn to try to hide her face, shoving it onto Catra’s shoulder and into her hair. 

“I call you that in my head sometimes. I’ll stop if you hate it.”

“I’m your Kitten?” Her tail unravels from Adora’s waist and is now thumping against the bed. She must feel very vulnerable.

Adora’s a little thrown off by the ‘your’ there. She wasn’t implying that Catra was hers in any way. Yes, it sometimes feels like that but she tries not to be possessive. Gods know, she certainly doesn’t think Catra owes her anything, not just cause of the last two months. Catra’s... _wild_ and free. Adora loves that about her. But Catra is also here, in Adora’s arms, and _giving herself over_ , it feels like.

This is a good time to take a chance. 

“You’re my Kitten,” Adora confirms. She feels like this deserves an offering in kind. “And I’m your Dor.”

“Yes,” Catra breathes out with a sigh. “ _My_ Dor. Mine.”

Maybe that settles some of those questions about who they are to each other.

“Don’t talk about my Dor like that, by the way. She’s pretty much the greatest person I’ve ever met. And I know a lot of people so.”

Impossibly, they find ways to press in even closer together, until all of their limbs are wrapped up in each other. Catra shifts them until Adora’s on her back with Catra stretched out on top of her.

Adora always enjoys an assessment to make sure everyone’s on the same page with a plan. Not the sexiest thing to do after...whatever it is that they just committed to. 

“I know that a lot of the other stuff that came up last time we talked still needs to be processed. But I think we have a good groundwork to focus on the more immediate needs right now.” 

Catra nods against Adora’s chest.

“I’ve got you, Kitten.”

“You’ll stay with me?” Catra whispers. 

Adora doesn’t know if she means today or forever, but she’s open to both options.

“Of course.”

Catra shifts up a bit and Adora thinks she’s about to say something so she raises her head to pay close attention. What she doesn’t expect is a gentle peck on the cheek. It happens too too fast – the sensation of Catra’s soft lips on her skin, close enough to smell her shampoo, smoke from cigarettes that she’s probably hiding, and her quintessential Catra smell that Adora’s missed so much, all musk and sandalwood with just a hint of flowers. 

That peck will have to do for now, though. Catra’s grieving and overwhelmed and Adora intends to fully behave herself. 

“Thank you,” Adora says like a complete doofus. Catra snickers quietly at her and then they settle into comfortably holding each other in silence.

At some point, someone's stomach growls. Finn had been promised pizza and Adora needs to let her coworkers know where she is because Glimmer will absolutely convene a search party if she’s gone for more than 2 hours. She tries to explain this to Catra, who’s not having it.

“No, you’re my Dor,” Catra grumbles against her chest. “We have to make up for all the lost time.”

“Two months,” Adora replies. She’s not agreeing, she’s just _sorta_ feeling similar. “You can really hold a grudge, you know?” 

Catra scoffs. “I was panicking, not just being petty. Trust me, you'd _know_ if I had a grudge. I got into a fight with Kyle and I haven't spoken to him in four years.” 

“Who’s Kyle?” 

“Exactly.”

* * *

Eventually, Adora does have to call work. Mostly cause Glimmer starts texting and doesn't stop for 25 minutes straight.

When Glimmer answers, she's breathless for some reason, like she's been running all over the office, even though Adora very clearly stated in her text that she had left and wouldn't be back. She didn’t say _where_ she went because it felt too complicated. That was probably a mistake.

“I swear, Adora Priscilla Gray, you better tell me where you are right this second or I’m-”

“Is that your middle name?” Catra asks. She pauses to think. “No, I’ve gone through your wallet. You don’t have a middle name.”

Adora doesn’t have time to ask why exactly Catra would go through her wallet before Glimmer jumps in.

“ _CATRA_?!”

The video call notification is immediate.

“Answer or she’ll be over here in 15 minutes and I’m not getting out of this bed,” Catra says.

On the screen, Glimmer’s standing in Adora’s office with Bow and Perfuma trying to shove their way into the frame.

Adora’s incredibly grateful that Catra allowed her to get up and put on a tanktop and shorts earlier, even if it was just to open the door for the pizza person.

In their tiny square in the corner of her phone, she can see the reflection of herself pressed against the headboard once again, Catra lying with her head in Adora’s lap, and just the edge of the pizza box that an off-screen Finn is trying to balance on Catra’s shoulder.

She turns down the volume just in time to cut off the collective squeal from the other side of the call.

Shit. Adora was focused on trying to get her friends not to put out an APB and didn’t really think about accidentally giving them the wrong impression about her relationship status. What if Glimmer says something mortifying? Which is basically guaranteed at all times.

When it appears that the trio has calmed down, Adora turns her sound back up.

“How did this happen?!” Glimmer screams.

“It’s not what you think,” Adora says quickly. 

She glances down at Catra for her input. If they’re going to tell people about Weaver, it should be her call, after all. Instead of answering, Catra angles the camera to her left.

“Finn!” Bow shouts, slightly quieter than his girlfriend. Confusion falls over both of their faces. 

The younger cat’s ears perk up and they turn into an even bigger bouncy smiling mess when they see who's calling.

“Bow!” Finn yells back. “I just ate a pizza with _all_ of the toppings.”

It was actually only about 5 toppings, cause Catra has a lot of feelings about what is ‘appropriate’ to put on a pizza, but they were too happy for Adora to ruin the illusion.

Bow tries to give an encouraging smile but his eyes are starting to look panicked.

“iwasn’treadytobeanuncle,” he whispers through clenched teeth.

Catra wisely swivels the phone back towards Adora.

“Lesbians,” Glimmer hisses. “What kind of U-Haul bullsh-”

“Okay,” Perfuma interrupts firmly. “Adora, we’re glad to see that you’re fine. Catra, good job for finally reaching out for help.”

Catra’s tail stops idly moving on the bed and tucks down between her legs. Like a reflex, Adora’s free hand goes down to stroke her mane. Fussing quietly, Catra repositions her head until Adora’s fingers are right below her ear. The blonde doesn’t hesitate to begin gently scratching.

“Perfuma will fill the rest of you dummies in on what’s up,” Catra tells them. “But Adora's not missing, just being held hostage here.”

Her eyes are starting to droop and there’s a quiet purr in her voice that Adora figures she’s probably trying to hide from their audience.

“Does Adora have to pay her ransom in kisses?” Glimmer asks with an annoying grin.

That's a good enough excuse for Adora to say goodbye and hang up quickly, seconds before the rumble against her leg grows. 

Catra barely startles when a tiny ear is pressed against her back to investigate the sound. Finn looks up at Adora with wide eyes, like she just made magic happen.

“Miss Adora?” It doesn’t seem like they’re quite sure what they’re asking for though.

“You can just call me Adora now. If you want. Are you feeling sad, Finn?”

They hesitate a second and then nod slightly.

“I’m sorry,” she tells them. “But you’re...okay?”

“Social worker says they were fine,” Catra says quietly. “She looked like she hadn’t slept in a year though so what the hell does she know?”

“We’ll find someone for them to talk to. I’ll add it to the list.”

“Come here, kid. I’ll show you how to con humans into doing whatever you want.”

Finn lets the pizza box fall to the bed and scrambles over Catra and onto Adora’s other side.

They watch attentively as Catra flicks her ear. It takes a couple tries, they stick out their tongue in concentration and everything, but they manage to softly flick their ears at Adora.

She dutifully reaches over to give them scritches.

Finn doesn’t purr, not really. They make a sound that’s a bit closer to a baby bird that Bow would absolutely lose his mind over.

“Now,” Catra instructs, “look at Adora and ask for a bike.”

“Cat! Can you try not to be a bad influence?”

“It works best with Bow,” she whispers to Finn. 

Catra reaches over and moves a couple pillows so they can sit more comfortably. Absently, Finn’s tiny claws start to knead the blanket as they lean further into Adora’s palm.

There’s a soft pad onto the bed and then Melog’s sitting near her feet, narrowing their eyes in jealousy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, maybe catra was doing slightly more than just listening to "i can't make you love me" on repeat. but it was just, like, ordering donuts and listening it to simultaneously.
> 
> yeah, if i can't shoot shadow weaver in the face, i will just let her die slowly.
> 
> no one's finished apologizing. they're gay. they have to have several more conversations where everyone politely plays the martyr but also adora goes "but for real, what the fuck is up?"


	12. Such a Lovely Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots and lots of talking. Lots and lots of shopping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy friday! here's some fluff, some light angst, and more fluff. a flaf, if you will, except that sounds kinda gross.
> 
> i continue to be very grateful for and extremely amused by the comments. these dummies will process more (and they'll make more mistakes, like so many more mistakes ffs) and there will be cute cat family adventures. some of y'all called that like 5 chapters back, which was really impressive honestly.

Adora arrives on a Friday morning to help out around the apartment and try to get some work done remotely. Well, as much work as one can do with a trio of cats climbing all over them.

She lets herself in, carrying muffins that she picked up from a bakery near her place. Double chocolate for Catra. Blueberry for Finn. Cranberry oat for herself. Maybe it’ll entice the other two out of bed at a reasonable hour.

Finn’s barreling towards her as soon as she walks in, moving way too fast.

“No running please!” she begs, but they bump into the door, slamming it shut and circling her before they can pull themselves into a hard stop a couple feet in front her.

“Dora!” They’re out of breath so they’ve obviously been rushing around for a while. Maybe giving Finn more sugar isn’t a good idea. “Cat-”

They’re cut out by a voice from the hall, “No snitching!”

Finn dutifully closes their mouth, tail swaying playfully behind them. One look at the bakery box in Adora’s hands, though, and their eyes go wide. Their tail freezes.

“Morning, Finn,” Adora says quietly with a smile. “I brought muffins again. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

It’s important that Adora does not _explicitly_ say that she’s bribing them. It’s just heavily implied. She wouldn’t want to set a bad example.

Finn glances at the box, at Adora’s eyes, and then over their shoulder to the hall to make sure Catra isn’t there.

Then they whisper something so quietly that it’s definitely impossible for Adora to pick it up.

“Hey!” an offended Catra yells from her room.

Since they technically did do what was requested, Finn leaps up in the air towards the muffins. Adora barely has enough time to hold the box over her head before their tiny claws swipe up near her shoulder.

Catra knows nothing about parenting, they’ve learned. Adora has a PhD in early education. Since legally, she is no one to Finn, she’s decided to follow Catra’s lead on discipline. This includes letting them run wild all over the apartment and jungle gyms and toy aisles. And now, Adora apparently.

She knows her own former foster mother, with her rigid rules about ‘appropriate’ behavior, would deeply disapprove.

With a tight smile, Adora tries to politely ask, “Finn, maybe don’t jump on people unless you ask if it’s okay?”

“Are you still being weird?” Catra calls. “Just tell them to knock it off. You’re the adult.”

Finn clearly senses they’re not on the same page and takes advantage of that, trying to launch themself in the air again. A claw gets a little closer to her face, not quite reaching their loot.

It’s enough of a near-miss that Adora gasps. A couple inches west and that would have been her eye.

“Knock it off, bud!” Catra yells, voice kind but firm.

Instead of another attempt, Finn throws their arms around Adora’s waist and nuzzles into her leg.

“I’ll tell you what Cat did,” they whisper.

“Last week, I bought an ugly wine cart in the middle of the night,” Catra admits. “I’m not gonna be shamed in my own home for my ambien purchases, just so we’re all clear on that.”

Finn still attached to her leg, Adora finally gives up waiting on Catra to come out and moves towards the kitchen, balancing the kid’s extra weight easily. There is indeed a gold bar cart on wheels sitting in the middle of the room. It matches nothing. The box to return it is not nearby. 

Great, now they have an ugly cart cause Catra forgot to go to sleep again.

Except, Adora reminds herself, she doesn’t live there. She’s just been there most days for the past week while trying to figure out what Finn and Catra need and how to help them. As Catra predicted, it pretty much involves making sure they eat and begging them to bathe.

She’s about to set the muffins down when Catra emerges from her room.

Draped in some sort of soft, gray silly-looking cape poncho over black tights, she moves towards them, trying to pretend to be nonchalant. Adora sees what Finn was _actually_ going to tattle about.

Catra’s long, unruly mane is gone. Instead it’s been replaced by short, still unruly waves cut into a cute little pixie style. Adora is shocked because she just saw Catra last night at dinnertime. And also because she remembers the name of a haircut. Probably Glimmer’s influence.

The older cat had idly asked a couple days before if she should cut her hair. She hadn’t been showering or combing it much and it was starting to become a whole situation. Adora couldn’t picture her without her signature locks but was smart enough to say that Catra would look great regardless. That seemed to be the end of it.

Without her mane, Catra’s eyes stand out even more. So bold and striking and expressive.

Adora doesn’t feel the box slipping from her hands but she hears Finn dive under it and cheer. 

“Sleeping pills?” is all she can say.

“No, I had a crying fit at 2am and decided that I needed a change.” Catra runs her hand through it self-consciously. “Probably shoulda used scissors instead of my claws, though.”

“I think a haircut is a recognized stage of grief,” Adora replies. She takes a moment to really look at it. Then she makes the mistake of imagining Catra with this haircut in one of her suits. “You look amazing.”

She realizes she sounds a bit breathless and cringes internally. Catra’s grieving and vulnerable. Adora has sworn to herself that she’ll respect that and back off. Not that she was being anything resembling _forward_ a couple months ago anyway.

Catra steps closer and gives Adora a relieved hug.

“Hi,” she whispers.

“Morning,” the blonde returns. She wraps one arm around Catra’s back and the other around her shoulders, hand stopping at the nape of her neck. Gently, Adora lets her fingers reach up to caress the short locks there.

All of the tension that Adora hadn’t even noticed Catra was holding melts out of her body.

“You really like it?”

Adora nod is quickly met with a deep purr.

From the floor, Finn makes a weird sound like they’re trying to get food out of their throat. A quick glance down confirms that that might be true since they’ve managed to take at least one bite out of each of the muffins. But they’re watching the two adults intensely.

“Practicing,” Catra supplies. “They can only purr when they’re sleeping. They want to try to do it when they’re awake. Impress all the kids when school starts back up.”

Adora makes a very silly cooing sound that Finn takes as approval to finish the rest of their baked goods.

“ _One_ muffin, please. Don’t you want to share with the rest of us?”

“You have to be more stern,” Catra tells her quietly. “Talk to them how you talk to me.”

“This _is_ how I talk to you.”

Catra pulls back to narrow her eyes at Adora. Then she agrees with a shrug.

“Well, don’t be afraid to just reach down there and wrestle your breakfast away,” Catra suggests.

Finn makes a sound that they probably think is a growl. It’s really just them saying “grrr.”

There’s probably bananas or something that Adora can have instead because this is too precious to disturb.

“You’re a capable, self-assured grown ass woman. Don’t be punked out of your muffin.”

“That feels weirdly homophobic but…” Adora starts to untangle herself.

“They do have claws that can cut through most materials, though,” Catra adds absently.

When Adora freezes, she just laughs.

“Dor, you work with kids. You can’t be afraid of one.”

“I’ve never had to interact with them at home,” Adora tries to whisper.

“Grrr.”

Barely restraining a laugh, Catra holds her hand out towards Finn without looking away from Adora. Finn relinquishes immediately and Catra hands the blonde 70% or so of cranberry oat muffin.

“Go get set up. Don’t you have a call in a few minutes?”

Roughly about 45 seconds after her video call ends, Adora hears the bedroom door open. The third bedroom was an office that Catra never used but Adora’s been really enjoying the sunlight and the view while she works. Typically, someone comes in to nap in the small spare bed or on the edge of the desk, but the latter is usually just Melog. _Usually_.

Catra comes around and sits on the corner of the desk, pulling her legs up until she’s holding her knees. She drapes her dramatic cape thing around herself.

This must be Catra’s proudest purchase, a fashionable excuse to wear a blanket.

Her “ _Hey_ , Adora” doesn’t have its usual confidence.

“Hey,” she responds, running a hand down the shin closest to her. “What’s up?”

“Kid had a sugar crash so they’re down for a bit. Have a couple minutes for me?”

“Always.” She opens her arms expecting Catra to want a hug. 

Instead, Catra shakes her head gently. Adora lowers her arms dumbly, trying to look as if she isn’t already prepared to begin panicking at a moment’s notice.

“I realized last night that I never really apologized,” Catra mumbles. “Not really. So. I’m sorry.”

Adora goes to open her mouth and is cut off when Catra adds, “Dude, I’m grovelling for your forgiveness. I have to say a whole thing.”

Dutifully, the blonde closes her laptop and moves the chair back just a few inches so she can face Catra better.

“I was upset. But I shouldn’t have gotten so angry with you. Or personal. That was dirty. It was your work and it wasn’t really my business. And then I left you twisting in the wind for weeks, which was fucking awful of me. You deserved better than that.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Adora tells her quickly. “I’m sorry for moving ahead without asking for your guidance or checking in with you. You’re the survivor. I should have listened to you.”

“Yeah, that would have been all the wrongs to do. And in front of Weaver? She would have had a fucking field day. You did what you could. I should have handled it better.”

“Me too.”

Catra shakes her head like she doesn’t know why Adora’s apologizing but it feels like she should own her part of this. And there’s something Adora’s more interested in hearing than ‘sorry’.

“Why _didn’t_ you ever respond? Even just to say you couldn’t talk?”

The cape goes over Catra’s head for a moment but she comes back out promptly.

“I was pissed. And then I was sad and overwhelmed with everything happening. And when she finally died, it felt too late, like I’d completely lost you. So I just kept hiding from it. Old patterns, you know?”

Yeah, Catra’s certainly triggered Adora’s old patterns of blaming herself and replaying all the ways she messed up in her head on a loop.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Catra says, almost like she can read the blonde’s thoughts. “I shouldn’t have treated you that way. I just...I was...scared. Once the grief hit, everything felt fucking impossible.”

“And telling the doorperson I wasn’t welcome?”

Catra shakes her head. “Weaver had my card so I had to alert the security here and at my office. She was liable to show up anywhere and…” she stops with another shake of her head, like she can’t even imagine the depths the woman would have gone through to torture her more. “I just did a full lockdown on unrequested visitors. Honestly, with everything going to shit, I completely forgot about it.”

With her head, she motions in the general direction of Adora’s body. While Adora’s only half-sure that she knows what Catra’s asking for, she nods anyway. As expected, Catra somehow manages to get from the desk and into Adora’s lap without her feet touching the floor. She just kinda slinks from one surface to another, pausing briefly to balance on the arms of the chair until she’s curled into a ball on Adora’s thighs, head lying on the blonde’s shoulder.

Adora can’t see her face when she begins to whisper but she can feel Catra’s ears flatten against her head.

“I kept imagining what would happen if I saw you. If you just showed up. At first, it was too much and I’d fight and convince you I was right. After a week, though, all I could imagine was being with you like this. Telling you about Weaver. And you leaving because it was too much.”

Adora shifts so she can wrap both arms around Catra.

“Is that why you told Scorpia not to invite me to her birthday?”

Catra groans in response. “You greatly overestimate the amount of control I have over the idiots in my life. _Scorpia_ decided not to invite you because she’s firmly on your side and thought I was going to cause a scene and yell at you or something. I don’t know where she got that idea.”

She pauses for a moment.

“I mean, except all those times she’s had to pull me out of screaming matches. But that was _years_ ago. I haven’t even been _allowed_ in a sample sale in half a decade.” For a second, she sounds a bit more like her regular self, idly complaining.

“You know I’d never do that, right? Just take off cause I thought you were a lot.”

It takes a moment but Catra nods. 

“So can we agree on something?” Adora asks. “If we’re ever feeling too much and we can’t talk, it’s fine to take a break. But it’s our responsibility to come back and finish things. I think we owe that to each other.”

“Adora Priscilla Gray wants to talk about feelings?”

“That’s not my middle name!” she says with a small smile. “But yeah, I’m learning to appreciate processing. Sometimes.”

“Well, then. Deal.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, just holding each other.

“I really am sorry I hurt you,” Catra says quietly. “I thought I had a better handle on things. I’ve been working on myself or whatever for so so long and Weaver comes back and suddenly I’m 8 years old again, so fucking alone and scared.”

“You’re not alone, Cat.”

“Neither are you,” she says pointedly, like Glimmer probably gave her a full update on how Adora was coping.

“It felt that way for a while,” Adora admits. “Everyone kept not so gently suggesting that maybe I could use some work on myself. I just sorta...broke apart.”

Adora would like to keep going. She really would. Explain more, push both of them a bit more. But this is already feeling emotionally exhausting and the day has barely started. Catra must sense it as well.

“I’ll let you get back to work,” Catra tells her. “When stuff calms down, we’ll talk, right? About...everything?”

Adora shifts down to look at her. Something in Catra’s eyes makes it pretty clear to Adora that she means this whole mess they’ve been wrapped in for months, even before Weaver came in like a storm. Gods, they haven't even begun to scratch the surface – all the things Adora wanted to say to Catra that night, her whole plan. It feels like a lifetime ago almost.

“Yeah. When you’re more settled, maybe?”

Catra nods then she basically mewls, a sound Melog makes when they want something. Adora’s never heard it from her before. When the blonde doesn’t move, Catra does it again.

With a chuckle, Adora gives in to a guess. She pets Catra gently on the head, enjoying the feel of short hair between her fingers.

“You don’t need my permission or whatever,” Catra starts, “but it’s okay for you to be mad. If I were you, I’d be fucking pissed.”

“Yeah, I remember how upset you were when I forgot to text once.”

“That was a misunderstanding!” Catra shoots back quickly. “I lost my phone or something? I don’t even remember so I refuse to be held accountable for that.”

“How are you so impossibly stubborn?” Adora asks with a quiet laugh.

Catra pulls back to look incredulously.

“You? Of all people? Wan-”

“Fine,” Adora interrupts. “We could both work on that. I think if you’d been just going about your life, having a perfectly wonderful time, I would have sent you an evenly worded but absolutely _scathing_ email in 2-3 weeks.”

“...did you schedule in being mad at me?”

“No!”

It was a vague timeline of when Adora could move from worried about Catra’s safety to enraged by her callous behavior.

“It was kinda hard to be pissed at you when I found out the context, Cat. I’m not a doormat, though. Don’t try to treat me like I am.”

“I won’t,” she swears. “I promise.”

* * *

“Glimmer _fucking_ Moon is a threat to national security and our entire way of life and should be treated as such.”

“Cat, it's not Glimmer's rules,” Adora reminds her yet again. “She just actually bothered to read the student code of conduct.” 

How she beat Adora to that is a mystery to everyone.

“Why does an elementary school even have a code of conduct? Tell them not to eat glue or sling piss at each other and they're fine.”

She continues tearing through the racks of clothes while Finn plays with fidget toys next to her. They'll follow Catra pretty much anywhere, but Adora's still anxious about taking them to crowded places after an incident the prior week where they disappeared and fell asleep in a huge display of stuffed animals. It took over an hour to find them and she basically had a meltdown while Catra argued with the security guards about whether or not they could use the store's cameras to track them down. It ended with everyone in tears except Finn, who was excited to report what a lovely nap they'd had.

Other than, you know, thinking they’d lost a child in a giant superstore that Catra was pissed to have to go to anyway, ranting about bad labor practices and the death of small business, the transition was mostly painful. And Adora was pretty sure that Catra’s rant was just to be difficult, even if it was well researched and very correct. But their friends had all been absolutely amazing, diving into supporting in any way that they could. Having a clear wellness plan had been helpful and everyone felt comfortable in their role.

Except Glimmer. She had been asked to pick up more things at the office so Adora could continue to do more remote work. Glimmer took that on and also assigned herself as aunt, house mother, head master, and documentarian. At least this keeps her mostly too busy to ask Adora too many pointed and way too personal questions about her and Catra’s relationship.

Having some extra time had been a true blessing really. Adora was able to help set up some routines for the three of them, get Finn settled in more, and be there for Catra while she grieved. The latter involved mostly allowing Catra to use her as a human pillow, which wasn’t a bad gig at all. 

Melog is usually upset about it but they have Finn to lounge on now.

One of the partners at Catra’s firm had insisted she take parental leave once they learned about the new addition to her family. She relented and took three extra weeks, arguing that she’d have nothing to do at home once Finn started school. In order to get Finn into counseling, they made a three-way pact, which meant Adora had to return to her therapist for the first time in years and Catra was seeing hers twice a week until she was feeling more sorted out. She’d had a bit of a backslide when Finn’s counselor reported that she didn’t think they’d experienced anything at all like Catra’s childhood with Weaver; it should have been a relief but it brought up a lot of feelings of self-blame for the older cat.

The biggest hurdle, in _Catra’s_ mind, had not been being dumped into the deep end of all of her past trauma, somehow, but _school uniforms_. 

Catra and Adora had tried to enroll Finn in the public school they attended the year before. Apparently, it was also Catra’s former elementary school and she was convinced that many of the (basically elderly) teachers from her youth that remained 25 years later hated her and were out to get her. And Finn. She’d taken one look at some kind-looking old lady named Mrs. Anderson, turned around, and walked right out the door.

According to Finn, they didn’t have any friends there and didn’t care anyway, which Adora found pretty heartbreaking.

So Catra made Mermista do some research and found a private school that was kinda nearby and claimed to be more affirming of gender-variant kids. Adora is pretty certain that Catra bribed someone to get them in but the feline’s excited about everything about the school. The arts program. The lack of both ‘hippie bullshit’ and ‘preppy fuckery’ as she says. 

The only issue is that Catra hates the uniforms. Also, that Catra didn’t realize there _were_ uniforms until Glimmer pointed it out this week. They’re not gendered at all, really, and pretty open to interpretation. Catra just doesn’t like Finn having to dress like everyone else for some reason.

Finn, it should be noted, doesn’t actually seem to care but will agree with Catra if they think they’ll get a reward. The two of them are a little obsessed with each other and Adora genuinely can’t remember a time when she’s been happier.

So far, they’ve been to three uniform stores, a thing that Adora wasn’t aware existed until now, and four regular kids stores. Catra hates everything in all of them. She claims none of it is Finn’s style. Since Adora’s known Finn, they’ve basically only worn hand-me-down jeans and t-shirts with a dingy bandanna on their neck or wrist. They’re in second grade. They don’t have a style. Pointing this out has only gotten her hissed at though, so she won’t make that mistake again.

“This is all shit,” Catra announces at a row of navy blue slacks. The only acceptable colors are white, blue, and khaki. Catra nearly collapsed when she heard this.

“What if we put together like a mood board or something?” Adora suggests. She overheard Glimmer say this, but obviously her friend is dead to Catra so it’s okay to steal her idea this one time.

“Sounds like a lot of work,” Catra mumbles. It’s surprising to hear her disinterested in spending more time on fashion, but Adora knows it’s just her grief talking.

“Well, maybe we can get some basic pieces until you have time to figure out more of a style.”

“ _No_. First day, first impression. It’s got to be good.” She stops suddenly, glances at a rack of tiny toddler khakis and scoffs. “Why do we as a society want our children to look like baby accountants?”

Catra glances back at Finn, who’s still wrapped up in their toy. 

“Any inspiration yet, kid?”

“I like fish,” they reply. “Can my pants have fish on them?”

“We should appeal to the school board,” Catra tells Adora, like she’s taking this fish suggestion seriously.

“Or, we should pick out some blue pants, some white shirts, a durable yet comfortable pair of shoes, and a backpack that’s not falling apart.” ‘Like sensible people’, she doesn’t add.

Catra spins around on her heel and marches up to Adora. She’s expecting another outburst. Instead, Catra puts her hands on Adora’s hips and pulls her closer with a smirk. 

“What’s it like to be so unimaginative? Is it fulfilling?”

“If you can’t dream too big, anything can be fulfilling,” Adora replies, matching her smirk.

“What a dark statement, princess.”

“Dora, can I have fish pants, please?” She looks down and Finn is making their sad baby kitty eyes, which usually works about 80% of the time to get them whatever they want. 

Adora is growing an immunity to it, thankfully. “The rulebook says no patterns. Sorry, Finny.”

“Boo,” they grumble loudly. Catra probably taught them that.

There’s a nearby giggle. Catra and Adora look to their side, where a middle-aged red-headed woman is smiling kindly at them. Adora knows what she’s going to say before it comes out of her mouth.

“Sorry for interrupting,” she begins. “You’re just such a lovely family.”

“Thank you!” Finn beams. 

Adora just gives the woman a polite nod. When this happened in the first few stores, she got flustered, to Catra’s great amusement. When Catra was having a bad day, she told a couple of people to mind their business and keep their commentary to themselves. Now, they just let Finn handle it. They’re the least anxious of the three usually anyway, given that they haven’t had much sugar yet.

The woman continues her shopping and Catra lets Adora go to reject a group of blazers. She holds one next to Finn and hangs it back up with a grim shake of her head.

With a deep breath, Catra explains, “We’ll get fish socks. They can’t possibly ban those. You didn’t look bad in the blue so I’ll order some decent ones with white trim. If I really annoy my tailor, she can have a couple finished before school starts-”

Adora tries to insert some reason here, “They don’t need tailored suits, Cat. They’re gonna just grow out of them in a few months.”

Catra continues, unbothered, “We’ll get some boring white and blue shirts but higher quality than this crap. Let’s go back to that boutique on the east side and pick up nice shoes and all the fixins.” She grabs Finn’s hand and starts walking away without even waiting for Adora.

“And fish socks?” Finn reminds her.

“That’s the most important part. Duh.”

At the boutique, Adora and Catra fight about how much she’s spending on socks, ties, _ascots_ (to replace the bandana, Catra explains), and random accessories that a 7 year old doesn’t need. Finn’s allowed to pick it all out and they want pretty much everything their eyes land on. They insist on getting _four_ pairs of shoes, all of which match ones that Adora is sure that Catra owns, and each costs more than what Adora is currently wearing.

Both cats move around the store way too quickly, grabbing everything and overwhelming Adora as well as the store clerk.

“You have such a fun family,” she whispers to the blonde. Adora gives her a tight-lipped smile in return.

“How young is too young to teach a kid the hanky code?” Catra wonders aloud.

“What is that?” Adora asks.

“33, apparently,” Catra replies, mostly to herself. “That’s a shame.”

As everything’s being rung up, Adora feels overwhelmed all over again. It must show in her face because Catra nuzzles briefly into her neck until she relaxes.

“Don’t worry,” Catra says with a wicked grin. “We’ll have to do this all again in the spring. When they grow out of everything, like you said.”

The next stop is supposed to be school supplies. Adora imagines this will be easy – pencils, a notebook, trapper keeper if that’s still a thing, the usual. Finn spends the entire time deciding which fish-themed pencil case and lunch box is the best.

“Fuck, I have to make _lunch_ everyday now?” Catra whispers to Adora.

“We’ll do meal prep on Sundays. Don’t worry – it’s on the list.”

“Gods, we’d literally starve without you.”

“Cat, you’re still allowed to order your fancy lunches. I know you love them.”

“This kid’s costing me a fortune – do you even see how many pencil cases they want? I’m gonna have to cut corners somewhere. I’ll probably have to meet you by your office every day and share a brown bag lunch with you.” 

Adora looks back at her. Catra’s face has a small, shy smile, like there was a bit too much hopefulness in her teasing words. Adora reaches back and links their pinkies together.

“If it’ll save you and Finn from becoming destitute, then I’d be honored,” she says. “Come on. Help me go through this list.”

“Yeah, no, I already ordered the best rated pencils, notebooks, all that shit online while you were sleeping.”

“Catra,” comes out exasperated because they’d had this conversation twice already. “Everything doesn’t have to be fancy.”

The feline pulls Adora pinky’s until the blonde is standing in front of her.

“Look, I know that everyone thinks I’m being extra or projecting or whatever.” Adora just raises an eyebrow. “But it’s their first time at this new place. Their first time with clothes that were bought just for them. Their first time learning about economic justice probably, once they see how the other kids act. I just want them to have the best of everything. Maybe build some confidence.”

Adora lets go of her hand to place both of hers on Catra’s shoulders. 

“I know. It’s incredibly kind and thoughtful.” Catra looks down bashfully. “Can we agree on two things? That we should run more decisions by Finn. And also that they naturally have more confidence than even elite-level athletes already.”

“Yeah, it’s terrifying. They’re a Leo. Also, they sleep on their back sometimes. Those are the most frightening people.” Adora has to stifle a laugh. “Seriously, Dor, we could be raising a tiny menace to society. Like a future super villain or something.”

Adora ignores the villain part to focus on the fact that Catra just implied that they’ll definitely be in each other’s lives for a good long while.

She pulls Catra into a hug in the middle of the store.

“Don’t even think about sacrificing me so you can get out,” Catra mumbles against her shoulder.

“I know you’d stay the whole time just so you could appear in a true crime documentary and tell your story. Your reenactment actress will look so awful.”

“Not a lot of cat actresses. It’ll probably just be a short guy in a werewolf halloween costume.”

That makes Adora chuckle which makes Catra join in. Finn, who hadn’t heard what happened at all, drags their many pencil case and lunch tote options over just to make sure that they were part of the joke.

A random store employee stocking nearby looks away from their work. 

“Y’all cute.”

“Thanks,” Catra returns with a blush, disentangling herself from the hug. 

The blush is a new reaction from her. Adora glances at the person and they’re _very_ attractive. A short curvy femme with caramel skin, curly hair dyed honey blonde, and nice hazel eyes. When Adora looks back to Catra, she’s moved away quickly.

“Let’s see how cute she thinks we are when the kid is caught trying to poison the city’s water supply for ransom,” Catra mumbles quietly. But Adora can hear the flustered smile in her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> catra takes a lot of strong stances (including her feelings on other people's sleep positions) and i'm not sure she actually believes any of them. she's right about the reenactment actress tho.


	13. The Absolute Spectacle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cats vs bows. Baby's first day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this week's posts are full of adora trying to figure some things out, glimmer mistakenly thinking all problems can be solved by her screaming, and cats. also, LONNIE. (like, a small amount of lonnie. i fucking love lonnie.)

Adora rarely takes a lunch break. There's no need to. She can usually just eat at her computer while she responds to emails. With the exception of her “work lunches” with Catra, she can generally just power through the time it takes her to eat her pre-prepped meal.

She's not a robot, though. Adora takes the occasional break, especially after everyone conspired to write in her performance evaluation that she was “creating a culture of overworking”, whatever that means. Unlike Glimmer, she doesn't spend the time on her phone or harassing her co-workers. Often, Adora reads a few articles or sends Catra a text.

Today, Adora decides to spend 30 minutes doing some research. She makes a mental list of all of her clothing. And then she tries to find an affordable store to pick up a couple new pieces that’ll complement her existing wardrobe.

Like some cuter shirts. More form-fitting. Or nicer pants. A couple skirts? Maybe an actual non-sportsbra?

“What are you looking at weirdly?”

Adora startles so harshly that she punches the screen when trying to turn it off. Recovering from that brief pain quickly, her hand reaches for the correct button but it’s too late. Glimmer’s already standing behind the desk, peering over her shoulder.

“Oh,” Glimmer says flatly. “Okay, for once, I have no idea what you’re up to.”

“Nothing,” Adora says quickly. “Uh. I was thinking of what to get my sister for her birthday.”

“Those tops are about as interesting as a trip to the gyno. Mara would never even give that a second look.” Glimmer pauses in thought for a moment. “Also, you give out $50 bills every year like someone’s aunt.”

“Who doesn’t appreciate cash?” Adora mutters before closing the tab.

Unfortunately, that means Glimmer sees the next open tab, a variety of posh underclothes.

She gasps and clasps her hands together in delight. “Are you getting laid?”

Adora rolls her eyes, grunting out, “Ugh, no!” She makes sure to avoid further embarrassment by just closing the entire window.

“Are you  _ hoping _ to get laid? I saw Catra’s new haircut. I don’t blame you.”

Adora focuses on pushing that out of her head.

“I just thought maybe a new style might be nice to try out. Something a bit more feminine.”

Glimmer nods like she has no idea what's happening but wants to be supportive. She moves to sit in one of the chairs in front of Adora’s desk.

“Can I ask why?”

Adora's eyes go wide. There was absolutely no way that she was going to admit the truth to Glimmer, of all people, a living breathing reminder of all the things that Catra’s attracted to. All the things that Adora doesn’t embody. 

She hadn't thought up a cover story, though. Why would she assume that she could mind her own business in her own office without accounting for Glimmer Moon?

“My therapist suggested a change might build my confidence?”

“Yeah, asking it as a question really sells the lie,” Glimmer deadpans.

It was mostly true, but that was a fair point. 

“I thought it might be attractive,” Adora admits.

“To whom?”

“To  _ who _ ,” she corrects.

“That's certainly attractive – try fixing her grammar and see if that floods Catra's basement.”

Adora's nose wrinkles at that imagery.

“Have the two of you found some time to have an actual conversation?”

“Yes, we’ve talked,” Adora responds. 

Bundled together in Catra’s bed, they’ve gone over lots of Catra’s childhood and other things that she’d kept locked away before. Adora talked too. Going back to therapy made her a little more comfortable to share a bit of her upbringing with Catra. 

“Liar!” Glimmer yells, pointing a finger at Adora. “Shame!”

“Fine,” Adora huffs. “We haven’t talked...about what you want us to talk about. There hasn’t been time.”

“You spend literally all of your time together!”

“She hasn't brought it up either,” Adora says defensively.

Glimmer throws her hands up in exasperation. “So you're both still battling to be the Supreme Disaster.”

“And anyway,” Adora continues, “the timing is terrible. She's grieving, she's fostering. I don't want to force her to make any impulsive decisions just because she's afraid of losing me.”

“And while that is noble and pure, it’s also willfully ignoring how she obviously feels about you. Someone's got to take the lead here. For two very demanding people, you're both being way too complacent.”

“I didn't ask for your input,” Adora says. It's a bit more forceful than she intended but it shuts Glimmer right up.

That's good. Glimmer even looks a little impressed.

“You should tap into whatever energy that is a little more.”

“Get back to work,” Adora tells her.

“I didn’t mean with me. Obviously-”

“ _ Now _ .”

“Hey. What did you do to Sparkles?” Catra casually asks later when Adora enters. She doesn’t seem that concerned about it though, just barely pausing to look up while she’s flipping through a magazine on the couch.

“Nothing,” Adora replies. “What did she say?”

“She was just blowing up the group chat about how you suddenly had ‘bad bitch energy’. I honestly couldn’t tell if she was angry or turned on.”

“Those emotions do look oddly similar on her,” Adora replies.

Finn’s door is just barely cracked and she can see them inside, reading a book upside down. The book, to be clear, is the correct way but Finn has their feet on the bed and their head on the floor, which doesn’t look very comfortable. They seem unbothered.

Adora takes this chance to pretend to idly clear her throat and move closer to the couch. Catra looks up more fully then, before tilting her head quizzically.

“New look?”

“Yeah, just wanted to try something different. Picked up a couple things after work.”

She pulls lightly at her new shirt, still in her classic black, a tight silk blouse with a pussybow and short sleeves that are ruched or something. She’s not very sure.

“What else you get?” Catra asks.

This isn’t at all how Adora expected her to react. She was hoping for excitement or a little interest, at the very least.

“A couple of similar shirts. A pencil skirt. What do you think?”

Catra blinks slowly once, then twice. This is not the slow, deliberate blink that Catra gives her sometimes when they're close together, a (unconscious?) sign of her complete trust in Adora, according to the human’s online research. This is Catra's ‘I’m going to figure this riddle out’ blink. It's much more worrying.

“You look gorgeous,” she says simply. “How uncomfortable are you?”

Adora gives a relieved sigh. “ _ So _ uncomfortable. What’s up with these sleeves?”

“Can I be very vulnerable with you?” Catra asks.

Maybe the outfit has grown on her. The blonde nods.

“I’m showing an amazing amount of restraint by not shredding that bow.”

Adora notices that Catra’s tail twitches and her pupils look much larger than usual. The last time this happened, Bow had left the dangling wrist strap on his videogame controller. Catra’s whole focus changed when she caught sight of it. She dropped everything, chattered, and chased him around the apartment until Bow figured out the issue and surrendered the controller to her.

“Kitten, please,” Adora begs but it’s barely out of her mouth before Catra’s leaping from the couch and onto Adora. “I have to return it!”

The two begin to wrestle, Catra becoming superpowered by her thirst for destroying fabric. They both fall to the floor, Adora yelling the whole time about not getting the shirt dirty. She quickly gives up when it’s apparent that Catra’s not backing down and just rolls onto her stomach to hide the bow.

That snaps Catra out of it. Kitties have no object permanence, right?

“Unless you’re planning on sleeping down there, this plan isn’t a long-term solution,” Catra points out. She shifts so she’s straddled on Adora’s lower back. “I’ll just wait you out. You’ll be antsy for a task to complete any minute now.”

Catra's weight feels so nice there and Adora allows herself one whole second of imagining how amazing this would be if she was face-up, they were in less clothes, and Catra put her claws away. Or put her claws away for  _ some _ of it, at least.

Second over, Adora hastily tucks the bow down inside the shirt’s collar. 

“Boo!” Catra jeers. But she must get distracted by something because her claws begin slowly ghosting over the blonde's back and upper arms. It's light as a feather but Adora's well aware that this soothing touch is being delivered by sharp blades.

After a couple deep breaths and mental reminders that she trusts Catra more than anyone, Adora allows herself to relax. Catra must take this as a good sign and starts kneading Adora’s shoulders with a quiet purr. Hopefully, there’s no claw pricks in the shirt.

“So everything has to go back,” Adora concedes.

“I’m sorry! I’ll behave. I promise.”

“No, this is a sign. I can’t have nice things.”

“Only you would take away that lesson from whatever this experiment is,” Catra says, sounding amused. “Keep the clothes. You look beautiful. You look great in everything, really.”

Adora lowers her face to the carpet to hide her blush. “You don’t think I’d look better if I was a little more… femme?”

“Mrrmp?” Catra stops kneading. “If that’s a side of yourself you want to lean into, sure. You know I support you. If that’s how you want to express your gender, I’ll even help you shop.”

She gently stands and reaches down to help Adora to her feet. Catra searches her face for a moment once they’re eye to eye.

“Just taking a wild guess here, Dor, but if you were thinking of changing only to please  _ someone else _ , though, that would be a mistake.” 

Catra takes a closer look at her. When she gets to the bow, she clasps both claws behind her back to fight the temptation, Adora imagines.

“Removing all outside influences, you’re pretty comfortable, right? With the way you...present?”

Adora nods. There’s plenty of things she’s  _ not _ super comfortable with, of course. Birds. People who only drive with one hand. Open-toed shoes. But on the whole, she’s had plenty of time to get mostly settled into her skin and her wardrobe, barring any ‘outside influences.’ Like random cute girls who make Catra blush.

“Then that’s all that matters. You’re perfect,” Catra says, like it’s so simple.

‘It’s just a shirt,’ Adora wants to reply. But yes, if it was just a shirt then it wouldn’t really be enough to garner Catra’s interest anyway.

This plan was doomed from the start.

“Thanks,” Adora quietly replies finally. 

She follows Catra back to the couch. They settle in and relax, like Catra isn’t just plotting a way to get access to the bow.

“I can’t believe you intentionally went shopping,” she says. “Or that you cursed Glimmer out.”

“I just suggested that she get back to work,” Adora argues.

“Shh. I like the story better the other way.”

* * *

They both forgot how ungodly early you have to get up for school. Adora’s a morning person but neither she nor Catra got much sleep the night before, tossing and turning several feet apart in the large cold bed after the two cats suggested that Adora sleep over just in case. Everyone seemed to agree that this was a great idea, even though Adora's too tall to sleep in the guest room bed and would therefore have to stay in Catra's room. The voting appeared to be  _ rigged _ . The cat contingent currently has a lock on all votes since even Melog gets to weigh-in and, mysteriously, they always agree with Finn and Catra (as translated by  _ Finn and Catra _ ).

Adorable dictatorships aside, it should have been a fine plan. Adora and Catra cuddle plenty during the daytime so sharing space did not have to be an issue. Like at all. But Adora felt terribly awkward initiating anything similar in the dark. For obvious reasons. Catra wasn’t much better, constantly switching from being curled into a tiny ball to  _ almost _ reaching out for Adora.

After the tensest night of sleep she’s had since she and Catra made up, Adora rushes into the bathroom just to give herself a distraction. When she’s out of the shower and catches a glance at herself in the mirror, she looks like shit, bags under her eyes, skin blotchy. 

Catra glides out of her closet looking downright  _ majestic _ . Possibly in solidarity to Finn, she’s wearing a very cute navy blue suit, except Catra’s is a bit more grown up, with a cropped blazer and high-waisted pants on top of a white blouse with a  _ very low _ neckline. Adora hasn’t seen her in a suit in over 2 months now. Catra’s managed to part and slick down her short hair in a way that’s incredibly dashing. So it’s okay that Adora genuinely does not hear the first few words that Catra says and has to ask her to repeat them several times.

With a groan, she says, once again, “Did you pack everything? I’d check but I’m lazy.”

It still takes way too long to process. 

After several moments, Adora replies, “Yeah. All packed.” She’s going to have to rush to make sure this is actually true when no one else is paying attention.

Catra glances at Adora with a very earned look of confusion. Then she glances down at herself. When she looks back up, Catra’s face fills with a triumphant smile. 

“Okay, I’m ready to roll then. Glasses or no?”

“Definitely glasses,” the blonde answers automatically, giving away way too much.

Catra’s smile grows if that’s even possible.

When they pull up to the school, Adora has the reaction that she knew she would. Jealousy over how fancy it looks. Relief over how fancy it looks. Sadness for not spending a day with Finn. Elation at how much their life has changed. Glee at the idea of having Catra to herself for the whole day. Horror at the idea of having Catra to herself for the  _ whole day _ .

Finn jumps out of the car before it’s barely stopped moving, way too excited to slow down. Catra has to jump out too to catch up to them. Adora doesn’t hear the catcalls until she’s hastily emerging to grab Finn’s backpack and lunchbox so they don’t get left behind. Is ‘catcalls’ an offensive term to actual cat people?

Adora looks over a little further away in the parking lot, to find Bow, Glimmer, Scorpia, Perfuma, and Entrapta all excitedly waving to her. Well, Entrapta isn’t waving, not really, more like just letting her hand linger lazily in the air as she looks at all of the children like they’re aliens. A particularly bold kid tries to pull one of her long purple pigtails and she just widens her eyes, instead of doing anything to stop it. Adora is fairly certain that Entrapta  _ was _ a child at some point but not with the way she’s acting.

“We have an audience,” Catra grumbles. “Just fucking peachy. I look like a garbage fire.”

“You look like the reason suits were created,” Adora teases.

“Someone’s been very excited to see me out of sweatpants today,” she gets in response with a smirk. “Finn, go say hello to your adoring fans.”

They positively light up when they see the group of adults. Instead of going over and greeting everyone, Finn screams hellos from across the parking lot. Some of the teachers are already annoyed with them.

“Your uniform is so amazing!” Bow yells back. 

He’s right. Finn looks great, even if Catra spent way too much time and money over something that’s not going to last long. 

Apparently, she was inspired by vintage Etherian naval uniforms and Adora had to listen to a whole discussion about this. The dark blue material has a white trim, like Catra had promised, and she even got a fake Morgan family crest stitched in gold over the front pocket of the blazer. Finn’s white shirt has little navy details sewn into the collar. They got to wear fish socks along with their nice shoes that Adora tried to unsuccessfully get them to break in first. Catra countered that they had to suffer to look good. Like Catra, Finn looks more like a catalog model than someone starting their first day of second grade in real life.

“Okay, give us some angles,” Glimmer orders, pulling up her phone for a photo. Everyone else follows suit.

Finn immediately breaks into a number of silly poses, eating up the attention. Adora makes a note to get them into acting or dance classes. Catra’s going to make a hilarious and frightening stage mom.

Catra sighs. “As much as I can appreciate the absolute spectacle of this, we’ve got a class to get to.” 

She takes Finn’s hand and pulls them away as they wave to everyone. When Adora moves to join their friends, she’s stopped by Catra’s other hand.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, princess? We can’t meet this teacher without a normie.” Catra allows herself to glare at the blonde for a couple more seconds before tugging her into the school with them.

Meeting the teacher is brief. Ms. Spinnerella seems nice enough, a little motherly and very kind. She asks Finn for their pronouns without prompting. She’s very patient when Adora stumbles terribly over explaining that they each had different last names, after she’d addressed them all as the Morgan family.

Finn immediately tries to disappear into the pile of kids who were already there but is stopped by Catra, who whispers, “Don’t forget that it’s okay to go barefoot if you want. They have to make ‘accommodations’. Remember that word.”

They try to wrench their hand out of Catra’s grasp. 

“But fish socks!” They huff, successfully getting their tiny paw free and escaping to make friends.

Adora wants to linger and make sure they’re okay but Catra tricks her into leaving by wrapping her right arm and her tail around the blonde and maneuvering two of them to meet their friends outside. Their five buddies are still hovering around their cars, in their work clothes already, sipping from to-go coffee cups. They’re kind enough to hand one to both Catra and Adora.

“This is so exciting,” Scorpia squeals. “Baby’s first day.”

“They’ve been in school for two years already,” Catra points out.

“First day with us,” Glimmer argues.

“Why are you all here exactly?” Catra asks.

Adora feels compelled to add, “Not that we don't appreciate it. Right, Cat?” She gets a noncommittal shrug in response.

Perfuma chimes in, saying thoughtfully, “This was an important day for all three of you. We wanted to be here to support.”

“I don’t completely understand this,” Entrapta admits, “but I have read that ritual and positive reinforcement are both important for development during a child’s formative years. And Catra’s grief in addition to the feeling of an ‘empty nest’ may mean she needs our physical presence as a display of our emotional assistance so as to prevent a worsening of her mental health.”

“Yeah, Trapta, I think Perfuma was trying to say that in a way that saves  _ some _ of my dignity.” She's getting antsy under all the sincerity. Which just means she appreciates it, Adora knows, but would like it to be over quickly.

“How ‘bout brunch?” Bow interjects cheerfully, trying to drag attention elsewhere.

Glimmer asks, being no help at all, “Are places even open at 7 am on a Monday?”

They all look to Catra. Patron saint of all the best food in the city.

“Yes,” she says with a put-on over the top sigh. “I’ll buy you all the best Dutch baby you’ve ever had in your entire life.” She thinks for a second and looks to Entrapta. “And tiny muffins.” This, Adora understands, is her way of making amends with her friend.

The place is empty of course. It’s an actual restaurant, kinda a little too trendy for Adora’s tastes, but people only come in occasionally to grab overpriced coffee to go. Catra makes everyone order whatever a Dutch baby is. Perfuma tries to get eggs. That is not allowed. Catra also gets bacon for the table, which just adds to what an unenjoyable experience this is for Perfuma. She doesn’t complain once the Dutch baby arrives, covered in cream and berries and stone fruit.

Catra spends the whole brunch practically in Adora’s chair with her. At one point, the blonde nearly has to ask for space to cut her breakfast pastry into pieces but decides that it’s not worth it to use both arms. She sacrifices her right one so Catra can wrap her tail around it. Again, Adora's missed weeks of this silly friend time and she almost gets sad remembering the fight they had once more. The constant presence of Catra in her personal space chases the feeling away this time.

It is really nice to see Catra enjoying the food and having fun with their friends in public. She’s spent the past several days so low that it was starting to weigh heavily on Adora’s heart. But here Catra is now, back to suits, spending $23 on what’s essentially a flat pancake, and undermining Glimmer with each breath, and it’s such a fucking relief.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Catra leans over to whisper. “Like I just recovered from a near-fatal disease in a Lifetime movie.”

Adora lowers her head down to hide her gaze. “I’m just glad to see you looking happy.”

She must have said that too loudly because she can hear Bow cooing from across the table and feel everyone's eyes on her. Catra ducks her head, digging into her food. It’s hard not to think about how if they weren’t in public, Catra would probably hide her face in the crook of Adora’s neck, like she does when she’s feeling shy. Well, as close to ‘shy’ as she’s capable of getting.

It feels like maybe their friends want to say something. They wisely choose to go back to quietly eating, before Glimmer brings up some fall excursion she wants to go on. A cabin in the woods for a long, presumably semi-drunken and rowdy, weekend. Glimmer and Bow are extremely excited and it’s easy enough for them to get Perfuma and Scorpia on board. Entrapta is not interested at all, but they’re not really close enough friends with her to care anyway most likely. Next, they turn on Catra and Adora.

Glimmer’s already using her ‘get shit done’ face.

“You two have to come,” she says. “You could use the break.”

Catra slowly takes another bite of food, eyes narrowing on Glimmer. “Are you forgetting about the cub?”

Glimmer waves a dismissive hand. “They can have a sleepover. Or stay with someone else.”

“Finn just started a new school an hour ago. They don’t have any friends yet.”

“Entrapta can take them maybe?” Glimmer suggests, glancing in the purple-haired woman’s direction. Entrapta clearly zoned out of this conversation 20 minutes ago, focusing instead on her phone.

Catra gestures at this. “Yeah, no.”

Glimmer huffs in response. “Fine. Be that way.” She turns to Adora and raises an eyebrow. “You’re not missing this.”

Instinctively, Adora wants to cower under that stare and promise Glimmer anything she wants. It’s easier than fighting. She glances at Catra, who is pretending to wait patiently but she hasn’t communicated that to her tail. It’s thumping steadily against her chair.

“Finny’s still getting acclimated,” Adora says, faking a frown. “It’s not a good time for us.”

It’s honestly the perfect excuse. This wouldn't be the first time that Adora was trapped in the country with Bow and Glimmer. Drinking. Doing puzzles. Being bored out of her mind with no reception and no ability to do work. It always sounds better in theory than it actually is. 

She wonders what else Finn could get her out of. Road trips, birthday parties that go past 11:00pm, bar crawls.

Clearly, Glimmer’s thinking this too. She smiles in that scary way where it feels like she’s planning something. 

“We’ll work on the logistics later. Maybe figure something out that works for everyone.”

Trapped in a cabin with a hyperactive 7 year old doesn’t sound fun. Maybe Glimmer will forget? That’s just silly cause Glimmer never forgets. And never forgives.

Adora smiles tightly and nods, praying for a miracle.

With her friend temporarily appeased, they’re able to finish up and let everyone get on their way to work. They’re in the parking lot at their cars when Glimmer remembers that she left a scarf inside. She elects Adora to retrieve it for some reason, even though Bow is standing right next to her doing nothing. He’s making a very odd face though so Adora agrees reluctantly.

She spends 5 minutes searching for this scarf, like a fool, asking the staff, checking under tables. It’s of course nowhere to be found because it never existed, Adora realizes.

When she rushes back to the group, she finds them all lined up side-by-side, nearly encasing Catra in a wall of worrywarts. Except Entrapta, who’s hanging off slightly to the side, glancing at Catra’s car with barely restrained interest.

“Why are you asking  _ me _ ?” Adora can hear Catra saying. She sounds a little defensive.

“You  _ are _ harder to break but Adora’s got less info cause she’s so oblivious,” Glimmer responds.

“Rude,” Adora calls out to them. 

When she reaches the group, they all smile awkwardly at her. Catra’s tense, like she’s waiting for an argument, so Adora places a hand on her lower back.

It’s a gesture that no one seems to miss, judging by how their smiles get just a little more awkward.

“What are we talking about?” Adora asks.

“Nothing that’s relevant to the  _ actual _ Etheria that we’re currently existing in right now,” Catra answers quickly. Turning to the rest of them, she asks, “Don’t you people have jobs? Scram.”

Adora pokes her in the ribs.

“And thank you for your support today,” Catra mutters with a fleeting smile. "It really means a lot."  


Back at home, Catra changes out of her suit, unfortunately, and into more comfortable lounge clothes. Adora doesn’t have any video meetings so she does the same. Catra had convinced her to once again work from home, just for today. With Finn at school, it would be her first day alone since they arrived and they were both worried about her struggling through it, though Catra refused to actually admit that she was concerned.

Actually getting any work done is a challenge, however. Adora sets up everything just the way she likes it. Catra bought her a fancy tiny couch desk once she got tired of Adora trying to use the office in the spare room. It was too far away, she complained, and there was no space for them to sit next to each other. 

So Adora pulls out the desk and places her laptop, files, coffee mug, phone charger, and water bottle down, situating everything perfectly. As soon as she sits down though, Catra burrows into her side and flings the files and phone charger onto the floor with her tail. Adora has noted that Catra never seems to ‘accidentally’ knock over anything that could harm her precious living room carpet.

“Cat, please.”

“Please what?” Catra asks, claws fidgeting with the hem of Adora’s shirt. 

“I’m behind on stuff.”

“Do you have a deadline today?”

Adora hesitates. She doesn’t but if she admits that, the battle’s already lost.

Catra must already sense this. “You have the rest of the week. I’m letting you go to work tomorrow.”

With a laugh, Adora dryly tells her, “How generous of you.” It’s never a good idea to negotiate with Catra, since this is her bread and butter, but Adora resolves to do it anyway. “I can wait until 10:00.”

“2:00,” Catra shoots back quickly. By then, they should be heading back to pick up Finn and she knows absolutely nothing will get done once the tiny cat is around, loudly recapping their day.

“10:15.”

“3:00.”

“Catra! You can’t go backward!”

“There’s no rules of engagement here. I do what I want!” But she finally lifts the corner of Adora shirt up and starts rubbing her face along the now-exposed tummy.

Adora’s willpower is diminishing quickly. She makes the fatal mistake of sitting back a bit and Catra quickly uses that to her advantagement. She shoves her way into Adora’s lap, pulling up the rest of the blonde’s shirt so she can fully rub her cheek along it.

“I’m starting at 10:30, whether you move or not,” Adora declares. She hopes Catra will be ready for a nap by then and put up less of a fight. 

The desk is moved to the side and the tv is turned to a competitive cooking show. Once she relaxes fully into the couch and has situated Catra for optimal lap space and tv viewing access, Adora notices that they both sigh in contentment. The purring begins pretty quickly.

Not long afterward, Catra’s trying to explain what an amuse bouche is when her phone rings.

“Fuuuuuuck,” she whispers when she sees the contact but answers anyway. Catra rolls onto her back as if that’s a more appropriate angle for taking a call from someone else’s lap.

“Hey, Lonetta,” she greets lazily. It’s a video. This just makes Adora feel even more awkward.

The person on the other ends sighs angrily. 

“Catrina, you know that’s not my name.” 

Adora angles slightly to see who this is – she’s about their age, mocha skin, long, thick black locs, a little more broadly built than Adora. She looks like she’s wearing a suit. Catra showed her a picture of her foster sister, Lonnie, awhile back. She’s a lot more intimidating on video, though, with her unamused, firm tone.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at home,” Catra shrugs. “Got until the end of the week off. Parental leave and parental death, I guess. What up?”

“Well, I’m calling about that cause your ass doesn’t respond to texts, leaving your poor family on read like a bad Hinge date you don’t want to see again.”

Catra rolls her eyes. “I’ve been busy, Lonnie.”

“Yeah, those thick-ass thighs that you’re using as a pillow are probably keeping you  _ very _ busy,” Lonnie deadpans, which makes Adora blush terribly. “How-”

Catra interrupts to say, “Don’t ask me how I’m doing. It’s the worst question anyone can ask and yet it’s all that people can think to say to make awkward conversation with me right now.”

“ _ What I was going to say _ ,” Lonnie begins loudly and very annoyed, “is how the hell are you letting Weaver do this to you?”

Catra narrows her eyes. “I’m not  _ letting _ her do anything. I’m...grieving.” There’s an odd shame in her tone and in the way her ears lower.

“Cat, I love you.” She pauses to look directly at Catra’s eyes. “So I’m going to be real with you. You have two options – you can get over it. You can realize that this mourning bullshit is exactly what Weaver would want. For you to backslide on all your progress, go back into your dark place, and let yourself feel like  _ you _ were the monster.”

Catra tightens her jaw, clearly not wanting to hear this. “What’s the second option?”

“You can catch these hands,” Lonnie says plainly, lazily lifting her hands onto the screen, palms facing away from it, to illustrate her point.

“If you fly 2,000 miles just to get into my face and tell me to stop feeling awful, I agree that I will physically fight you,” Catra replies mildly. With a deep breath, she adds, “I’m not doing too bad. I’ll call you back later and you can catch up with the kid. I’ve got friends helping and I’ve got Adora.”

Adora smiles a little at the casual way Catra mentions her name, like she talks about the blonde with Lonnie pretty regularly.

This is confirmed by what Catra unexpectedly does next. She briefly turns the screen to face Adora, who waves awkwardly, before turning it back again to herself.

“Holy shit, is that her? Yeah, I’d be playing this up too.”

“I’m not playing it up! You and I are just grieving in different ways, Lon.”

“Yeah, speaking of. We’re gonna take the house off your hands.”

Catra looks genuinely shocked speechless.

“It’s the least I could do,” Lonnie adds. “Since you took the kid and everything.”

“Why are you volunteering to fuck up your whole life? Do you know how much she owed?”

“It’s less than you’ll be spending on Finn over the next decade,” Lonnie replies. “Can you try not being difficult for once in your life?”

“Fine,” Catra huffs. “You get to play hero. What a rare treat for you.”

Facetiously, Lonnie asks, “How will you fill your time now that you don’t get to play martyr?”

Adora’s pretty sure they’re not fighting and this is just how they speak to each other.

“Maybe Adora can help you with that,” Lonnie says with a devilish smile.

Catra squirms a bit, which is certainly a new reaction to this particular breed of teasing. 

“Is she still single?” 

At that, Catra hisses, Lonnie just chuckles in return. She continues, “Well, I’ll be seeing what all the fuss is about at Christmas, right?”

Catra glances up at Adora. They two of them have not had a conversation about the holidays. Honestly, Adora wasn't sure what to expect about possible plans, since she doesn’t have any rituals or anywhere she needs to be herself. Catra hadn’t mentioned it at all but they were still a few months away.

“Okay,” Lonnie continues, impatiently sucking her teeth. “I guess I’ll let y’all work that out amongst yourselves. I gotta go, Cat.” Her voice goes softer, “You know you can always reach out to us if you need anything.”

“Yeah, I know,” Catra replies, sounding a little guilty.

“Rogelio says hi.”

“Tell him I haven’t forgot about our rematch in that dumb city-building game he forced me to play last month.”

“Girl, that ain’t a competitive game.”

Catra narrows her eyes. “It is the way  _ I _ play it.” 

“And Kyle says hi.”

Catra does not acknowledge that she’s heard this so Lonnie just says goodbye and hangs up.

“Kyle?” Adora asks.

“Fucking Kyle,” Catra mumbles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, kyle has done nothing to deserve this. i'm not saying lonnie comes in at the end of this story and saves the day but she appears in chapters 18 and 19 and basically does that.


End file.
